Page 40 - Agriculture_Form_3

Agriculture for Secondary Schools

Chapter

Three Sorghum production

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Introduction

In this chapter, you will learn the principles and practices of producing sorghum,
including planning, site selection, land preparation, variety selection and
sowing. You will also learn the management of soil water, and nutrients, weeds,
pests and diseases as well as harvesting, postharvest handling and marketing.
The competencies developed will enable you to produce sorghum for food and
income generation.

Think

Strong in the sun, food for everyone

Sorghum and its importance

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) is a drought-resistant cereal crop mostly grown in
semi-arid regions of Tanzania. Sorghum has small grains of different colours
(white, red, brown or yellow), mainly used for food. There are different types of
sorghum based on their use and characteristics. These include grain, forage and
sweet sorghums. Grain sorghum is the most commonly grown type in Tanzania
and is used to make traditional dishes like porridge and stiff porridge. It is also
used in local and commercial beer brewing. It has the potential to be used for
biofuel production. Forage sorghum, a tall type, is rich in energy and fibre, which
makes it ideal for animal feed. Sweet sorghum is the type which has a high
sugar content in its stem and is grown for syrup production and biofuels such as
ethanol. In Tanzania, the focus has been on producing grain sorghum for food.
Forage sorghum is being promoted for animal feed. Figure 3.1 shows sorghum
grains in different colours.

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