Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that can help answer the question.
Query: What is sorghum used for?
One species, Sorghum bicolor,[7] native to Africa with many cultivated forms now,[8] is an important crop worldwide, used for food (as grain and in sorghum syrup or "sorghum molasses"), animal fodder, the production of alcoholic beverages, and biofuels. Most varieties are drought- and heat-tolerant, and are especially important in arid regions, where the grain is one of the staples for poor and rural people. These varieties form important components of forage in many tropical regions. S. bicolor is an important food crop in Africa, Central America, and South Asia, and is the fifth-most important cereal crop grown in the world.[9]
To many people the nutritional elements of sorghum are unknown however it is a very important whole grain. The grains can be eaten in many ways such as in cold salads, or an alternative to couscous, or rice. A huge advantage is that it can be used as a gluten free substitute to regular white flour. It can be used for baking in things such as cookies, muffins, cakes, and breads. Sweet sorghum can be processed into syrups and molasses. Sorghum has also traditionally been used for alcoholic beverages and malt drinks.
An international effort is under way to improve sorghum farming. The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) has improved sorghum using traditional genetic improvement and integrated genetic and natural resources management practices. New varieties of sorghum from ICRISAT has now resulted in India producing 7 tons per hectare. Some 194 improved cultivars are now planted worldwide. In India, increases in sorghum productivity resulting from improved cultivars have freed up six million hectares of land, enabling farmers to diversify into high-income cash crops and boost their livelihoods. Sorghum is used primarily as poultry feed, and secondarily as cattle feed and in brewing applications.
Sorghum is used in Africa as a local ingredient saving on expensive imported malt and developing the local agricultural sector. Sorghum has a high gelatinisation temperature and is added to a mash cooker to gelatinise the starch before adding to the mash tun. Sorghum has been used for hundreds of years as the main ingredient in many of the indigenous traditional African beers. Sorghum can be used in the malted or the un-malted form.
In the future, use of sorghum may increase in Tanzania, as farmers replace maize with the drought-resistant crop in areas where rainfall declines due to climate change. Following lobbying by the ICRISAT-led Hope Project, the government recently included improved varieties of sorghum in its seed subsidy programme and agreed to provide a fertiliser subsidy programme for sorghum for the first time. This means that the government will buy seed from seed companies and sell it to farmers at almost half the market price. Tanzania's farmers have reported that improved sorghum varieties grow quickly, demand less labour and are more resistant to pests and diseases.
Sorghum production in Chad is one of the country's most important subsistence crops. In Chad, sorghum ("Sorghum guineense") is a staple food crop which is also used as animal feed and for brewing beer. As of 2011, its production at the farm level was 650,000 tons from a cropped area of with a yield rate of 8.2 tons per hectare. It accounts for only 1.1% of world production and its world ranking is 17.
Grain sorghum has also been used by the ethanol industry for quite some time because it yields about the same amount of ethanol per bushel as corn. As new-generation ethanol processes are studied and improved, sorghum's role may continue to expand. Texas A&M University ran trials to ascertain the best varieties for ethanol production from sorghum leaves and stalks in the USA.
Sorghum amplum – northwestern Australia Sorghum angustum – Queensland Sorghum arundinaceum – Africa, Indian Subcontinent, Madagascar, islands of the western Indian Ocean Sorghum bicolor– cultivated sorghum, often individually called sorghum, also known as durra, jowari, or milo. Native to Sahel region of Africa; naturalized in many places Sorghum brachypodum – Northern Territory of Australia Sorghum bulbosum – Northern Territory, Western Australia Sorghum burmahicum – Thailand, Myanmar Sorghum controversum – India Sorghum × drummondii – Sahel and West Africa Sorghum ecarinatum – Northern Territory, Western Australia Sorghum exstans – Northern Territory of Australia Sorghum grande – Northern Territory, Queensland Sorghum halepense– Johnson grass – North Africa, islands of eastern Atlantic, southern Asia from Lebanon to Vietnam; naturalized in East Asia, Australia, the Americas Sorghum interjectum – Northern Territory, Western Australia Sorghum intrans – Northern Territory, Western Australia Sorghum laxiflorum – Philippines, Lesser Sunda Islands, Sulawesi, New Guinea, northern Australia Sorghum leiocladum – Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria Sorghum macrospermum – Northern Territory of Australia Sorghum matarankense – Northern Territory, Western Australia Sorghum nitidum – East Asia, Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, New Guinea, Micronesia Sorghum plumosum – Australia, New Guinea, Indonesia Sorghum propinquum – China, Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, New Guinea, Christmas Island, Micronesia, Cook Islands Sorghum purpureosericeum – Sahel from Mali to Tanzania; Yemen, Oman, India Sorghum stipoideum – Northern Territory, Western Australia Sorghum timorense – Lesser Sunda Islands, Maluku, New Guinea, northern Australia Sorghum trichocladum – Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras Sorghum versicolor – eastern + southern Africa from Ethiopia to Namibia; Oman Sorghum virgatum – dry regions from Senegal to Israel
In Ethiopia, sorghum is fermented to make injera flatbread, and in Sudan it is fermented to make kisra. In India, dosa is sometimes made with a sorghum-grain mixture, but rice is more commonly used in place of sorghum.
In southern Africa, sorghum is used to produce beer, including the local version of Guinness. In recent years, sorghum has been used as a substitute for other grain in gluten-free beer. Although the African versions are not "gluten-free", as malt extract is also used, truly gluten-free beer using such substitutes as sorghum or buckwheat are now available. Sorghum is used in the same way as barley to produce a "malt" that can form the basis of a mash that will brew a beer without gliadin or hordein (together "gluten") and therefore can be suitable for coeliacs or others sensitive to certain glycoproteins.
Sorghum beer is called "bjala" in northern Sotho and is traditionally made to mark the unveiling of a loved-one's tombstone. The task of making the beer falls traditionally to women. The process is begun several days before the party, when the women of the community gather together to bring the sorghum and water to a boil in huge cast iron pots over open fires. After the mix has fermented for several days, it is strained - a somewhat labor-intensive task. Sorghum beer is known by many different names in various countries across Africa, including Umqombothi (South Africa) "burukuto" (Nigeria), "pombe" (East Africa) and "bil-bil" (Cameroon). African sorghum beer brewed using grain sorghum undergoes lactic acid fermentation, as well as alcoholic fermentation.
In Central America, tortillas are sometimes made using sorghum. Although corn is the preferred grain for making tortillas, sorghum is widely used and is well accepted in Honduras. White sorghum is preferred for making tortillas.
Sorghum syrup and hot biscuits are a traditional breakfast in the Southern United States. Sorghum syrup is also used on pancakes, cornmeal mush, grits and other hot cereals. It can be used as a cooking ingredient with a similar sweetening effect as molasses, though blackstrap molasses still has a higher nutritional value than sorghum syrup in most regards. In India sweet sorghum syrup is presently being promoted as a health food.
Additional research is being done on sorghum as a potential food source to meet the increasing global food demand. Sorghum is resistant to drought- and heat-related stress. The genetic diversity between subspecies of sorghum makes it more resistant to pests and pathogens than other less diverse food sources. In addition, it is highly efficient in converting solar energy to chemical energy, and also in use of water. All of these characteristics make it a promising candidate to help meet the increasing global food demand. As such, many groups around the world are pursuing research initiatives around sorghum (specifically "Sorghum bicolor"): Purdue University, HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, Danforth Plant Science Center, the University of Nebraska, and the University of Queensland among others. Queensland University is involved with pre-breeding activities, which are extremely successful and still are in progress using crop wild relatives as donors along with popular varieties as recipients to make sorghum more resistant to biotic stresses.
On Thursdays between the Ember days, periods of fasting for the Catholic Church, the "benandanti" claimed their spirits would leave their bodies at night in the form of small animals. The spirits of the men would go to the fields to fight evil witches ("malandanti"). The "benandanti" men fought with fennel stalks, while the witches were armed with sorghum stalks (sorghum was used for witches' brooms, and the "brooms' sorghum" was one of the most current type of sorghum). If the men prevailed, the harvest would be plentiful.
Global demand for sorghum increased dramatically between 2013 and 2015 when China began purchasing US sorghum crops to use as livestock feed as a substitute for domestically grown corn. China purchased around $1 billion worth of American sorghum per year until April 2018 when China imposed retaliatory duties on American sorghum as part of the trade war between the two countries.[12]
Grain sorghum is the third most important cereal crop grown in the United States and the fifth most important cereal crop grown in the world. In 2010, Nigeria was the world's largest producer of grain sorghum, followed by the United States and India. In developed countries, and increasingly in developing countries such as India, the predominant use of sorghum is as fodder for poultry and cattle. Leading exporters in 2010 were the United States, Australia and Argentina; Mexico was the largest importer of sorghum.
Sorghum is well adapted to growth in hot, arid or semiarid areas. The many subspecies are divided into four groups — grain sorghums (such as milo), grass sorghums (for pasture and hay), sweet sorghums (formerly called "Guinea corn", used to produce sorghum syrups), and broom corn (for brooms and brushes). The name "sweet sorghum" is used to identify varieties of "S. bicolor" that are sweet and juicy.
In several countries in Africa, including Zimbabwe, Burundi, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Nigeria, sorghum of both the red and white varieties is used to make traditional opaque beer. Red sorghum imparts a pinkish-brown colour to the beer.
Commercial sorghum is the cultivation and commercial exploitation of species of grasses within the genus "Sorghum" (often "S. bicolor"). These plants are used for grain, fibre and fodder. The plants are cultivated in warmer climates worldwide. Commercial "Sorghum" species are native to tropical and subtropical regions of Africa and Asia.
Sorghum bicolor, commonly called sorghum () and also known as great millet, durra, jowari, or milo, is a grass species cultivated for its grain, which is used for food for humans, animal feed, and ethanol production. Sorghum originated in Africa, and is now cultivated widely in tropical and subtropical regions. Sorghum is the world's fifth-most important cereal crop after rice, wheat, maize, and barley. "S. bicolor" is typically an annual, but some cultivars are perennial. It grows in clumps that may reach over 4 m high. The grain is small, ranging from 2 to 4 mm in diameter. Sweet sorghums are sorghum cultivars that are primarily grown for forage, syrup production, and ethanol; they are taller than those grown for grain.
In Africa and Asia sorghum is primarily used for traditional purposes with subsistence and small-scale farming. The use was traditionally for food. In Asia and Africa sorghum is often boiled, roasted, or popped, used as flat bread or eaten as porridge. Sorghum is also grown in the southern parts of the United States however it is mostly used for animal feeds.
Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) comes from the Latin name “Syrucum (granum)” which means “grain of Syria” however it originated in eastern Africa. Sorghum is an important species of the grass family, Paceae, and is considered the world’s fifth most important cereal crop. There are many diverse and wild types of Sorghum, however there are seven basic races, the most common in Asia are Durra and Sballu. Sorghum is an important staple crop for more than 500 million people in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, including many people in Nepal. Sorghum is grown on more than 48 ha area around the world. In statistics collected from 1992-1994 about general millet, Nepal had an area of 0.21 million ha, with a yield rate of 1.14 (t/ha), and produced around 0.24 million tons of Sorghum. The entirety of the crop is highly valued, both the grain and the stem are very useful. Sorghum can be cooked in many different ways for food with a high nutritional content, among many other uses. Overall Sorghum is a very important crop worldwide.
Sweet sorghum has been widely cultivated in the U.S. since the 1850s for use in sweeteners, primarily in the form of sorghum syrup. By the early 1900s, the U.S. produced of sweet sorghum syrup annually. Making syrup from sorghum (as from sugar cane) is heavily labor-intensive. Following World War II, with the declining availability of farm labor, sorghum syrup production fell drastically. Currently, less than are produced annually in the U.S.
In the tropical regions sorghum is generally easy to care for, it can survive off rainfall and is planted on the onset of Monsoon season, which is around mid to late June. Sorghum can produce high yields where the participation is low and erratic. For subsistent farmers, like those in Nepal, fertilizers are not necessary however doses of nitrogen fertilizers do tend to be used in larger scale operations. Sorghum can and is frequently harvested by hand.