Market-led sorghum breeding and product development
Last week, the African Centre for Crop Improvement (ACCI) participated in a productive field day aimed at boosting sorghum development in South Africa. The event, held at Reydal Farm, Tarlton in Gauteng Province, involved the sorghum pre-breeding and product development units of the National Sorghum Cluster Initiative (SCI). The University of KwaZulu-Natal’s ACCI is an active member of this group.
The event was hosted by Sorgho (Pty) Ltd company, a research collaborator of the pre-breeding unit. This company was established in 1993 and is situated in West Rand, Gauteng Province. It has an active sorghum breeding programme to develop the best cultivars and improved seeds with desirable product profiles. At its processing plant, it manufactures commercial products for local and regional markets, including instant porridge, sorghum malt, beer powder and brewer’s yeast.
“The event was an excellent opportunity to learn about ‘market-led sorghum breeding and product development’ activity at Sorgho’s field nursery and the diverse industrial products prepared at its manufacturing facility,” said ACCI director Profesor Hussein Shimelis.
Sorghum is an adaptive and climate-resilient crop for sustainable food systems. It originated in Africa and is now the fifth most important cereal crop globally after maize, rice, wheat, and barley. It is used in the manufacture of food, feed, alcoholic beverages, industrial raw materials and bioethanol, and it is involved in local, regional, and international trade.
Sorghum-derived diets have diverse health benefits, such as preventing certain types of cancer, controlling diabetes, offering a dietary value for people with Celiac disease, improving digestive health, building strong bones, promoting red blood cell development, and boosting energy. Its nutritive and economic value, as well as climate resilience, enable sorghum to be an alternative crop to other cereals that are commonly cultivated and used globally.
However, despite these attributes, in South Africa sorghum production and consumption have dramatically declined. “The country is now a net importer of sorghum grain rather than an exporter as it used to be. This is due to a lack of dedicated sorghum genetic improvement to develop cultivars with enhanced yield potential, making sorghum production less competitive than other cereal crops,” said Shimelis.
To promote sorghum production, product development and commercialisation, the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI) of South Africa initiated and funded a study on market opportunities for sorghum in South Africa. The goal was to identify the challenges facing sorghum production and recommend how the sorghum industry could become more competitive and productive. This led to the establishment of the Sorghum Cluster Initiative (SCI) to advance the report’s recommendations towards implementation. Sorghum pre-breeding is one of the focal projects of the SCI.
The collaborators of the pre-breeding research project include the ACCI, the University of the Free State (UFS) and the Sorgho (Pty) Ltd company. The project seeks to optimise the yield of this neglected and underutilised crop with research into genetic improvement to result in higher-yielding hybrids with desirable product profiles.