Sorghum

BSC AGRICULTURE HONS 2

YEAR
I’D NO: 21116
SHAILJA NEGI
Vernacular Names
Juar (Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi), Jola (Kannada), Cholam
(Malayalam, Tamil), Jwari Marathi), Janha (Oriya), Jonnalu (Telugu), Other names: Milo,
Chari

Origin
There are different views about place of origin of sorghum. Warth
(1937) was of the opinion that it was originated in India and Africa. De Candolle said
that sorghum was originated in Africa. It is believed to originate from North East of
Africa or Abyssinia and brought to USA and European countries by slaves.

Geographic Distribution
Sorghum is grown all parts of the
world except cool North east part of Europe. Sorghum belts in India receive 400-
1000mm rainfall. In the World, Africa (Nigeria, Sudan) is the major continent
cultivates sorghum and North America, South America and Asian continents also
grow sorghum. In India, mainly on central & peninsular India such as, Maharashtra,
Karnataka, MP, AP, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat are important states
cultivating sorghum crop.
Economic Importance
Sorghum is a cereal grain crop mostly
grown in Africa, Asia and Central America, primarily to ease food insecurity. It is the
world's fifth largest grain crop and Africa's second most important in terms of
tonnage. Sorghum is mostly grown in semi-arid or sub-tropical regions due to its
resistance
Cultural to harsh
Practices weather
(Season conditions
And Varieties)

1. Thaipattam (January-February), Chithiraipattam (April-May), Adipattam (June-July) and

Puratasipattam (September-October) are the four common seasons for sorghum crop in Tamil
Nadu.
2. The cultivars, CO 26, CO (S) 28, CO (S) 30, BSR 1, COH 4, K tall, K 11, Paiyur 1, Paiyur 2 and APK 1
are most commonly used in Tamil Nadu.

Selection of seeds:
Good quality seeds are collected from disease and pest-free fields.
Seed rate:
Irrigated: Transplanted - 7.5 kg/ha; Direct sown - 10 kg/ha
Rainfed (Direct sown) - 15 kg/ha

Sorghum under irrigated condition is raised both as a direct sown and transplanted crop
Advantages of transplanted crop:
• Main field duration is reduced by 10 days.
• Shoot fly, which attacks direct sown crops during the first 3 weeks and which is
difficult to control, can be controlled effectively and economically in the nursery itself.
• Seedlings which show chlorotic and downy mildew symptoms can be eliminated,
thereby incidence of downy mildew in the main field can be minimised.
• Optimum population can be maintained as only healthy seedlings are used for
transplanting.
• Seed rate can also be reduced by 2.5 kg/ha.

NURSERY PRACTICES FOR TRANSPLANTED SORGHUM

Nursery preparation: For raising seedlings to plant one hectare, select 7.5 cents (300 m2 ) near a
water source where water will not stagnate. Application of FYM to the nursery
• Apply 750 kg of FYM or compost and apply another 500 kg of compost or FYM for covering the
seeds after sowing.
• Spread the manure evenly on the un-ploughed soil and incorporate by ploughing or apply just before
last ploughing.
Laying the nursery
• Provide three separate units of size 2 m x 1.5 m with 30 cm space in between the plots and all
around the unit for irrigation.
• Excavate the soil from the inter-space and all around to a depth of 15 cm to form channels and
spread the soil removed on the bed and level.
Pre-treatment of seeds

• Treat the seeds 24 hours prior to sowing with Carbendazim or Captan or Thiram at 2g/kg of seed.
• Treat the seeds with three packets (600 g)/ha of Azospirillum and 3 packets (600g) of
phosphobacteria or 6 packets of Azophos (1200g) using rice gruel as binder. Sowing and covering
the seeds
• Make shallow rills, not deeper than 1cm on the bed by passing the fingers vertically over it.
• Broadcast 7.5 kg of treated seeds evenly on the beds.
• Cover by leveling the rills by passing the hand lightly over the soil. Water management
• Provide one inlet to each nursery unit.
• Allow water to enter through the inlet and cover all the channels till the raised beds are wet and
then cut off water
• Adjust the frequency of irrigation according to the soil types. If it is red soils, at 4-5 days interval
and black soils, 5-6 days interval is to be maintained
B. Main Field Prep Aration : Ploughing
• Plough the field with an iron plough once (or) twice. Sorghum does not require fine tilth since fine
tilth adversely affects germination and yield in the case of direct sown crop.
• To overcome the subsoil hard pan in Alfisols (deep red soils) chiseling the field at 0.5m intervals to a
depth of 40 cm on both the directions of the field followed by disc ploughing once and cultivator
ploughing twice help to increase the yield of sorghum and the succeeding blackgram also. This was
true with Sorghum followed by Groundnut also
Application of FYM

Spread 12.5 t/ha FYM or composted coir pith along with 10 packets of Azospirillum
(2000g/ha) and 10 packets (2000 g/ha) of phosphobacteria or 20 packets of Azophos (4000g/ha) on
the unploughed field and incorporate the manure in the soil. Apply well decomposed poultry manure
@ 5 t/ha to improve the grain yield as well as physical properties of soils.

Formation of ridges and furrows

1. Form ridges and furrows using a ridger at 6 m long and 45 cm apart.
2. Form irrigation channels across the furrows.
3. Alternatively, form beds of size 10 m2 and 20 m2 depending on the availability of water.
Application of fertilizers : Transplanted crop

• Apply NPK fertilizers as per soil test recommendations. If soil test recommendations are not available,
adopt a blanket recommendation of 90 N, 45 P2O5, 45 K2O kg/ha
• In the case of ridge planted crop, open a furrow 5cm deep on the side of the ridge at two thirds the
distance from the top of the ridge and place the fertilizer mixture along the furrow and cover with soil
up to 2 cm.
• Soil application of Azospirillum at 10 packets (2 kg/ha) and 10 packets (2000g/ha) of phosphobacteria
or 20 packets of Azophos (4000g/ha) after mixing with 25 kg of FYM + 25 kg of soil may be carried out
before sowing/planting.
Application of micronutrient mixture Transplanted crop

• Mix 12.5 kg/ha of micronutrient mixture formulated by the Department of Agriculture, Tamil Nadu with
enough sand to make a total quantity of 50 kg and apply the mixture over the furrows and on top one
third of the ridges.
• If micronutrient mixture is not available, mix 25 kg of zinc sulphate with sand to make a total quantity
of 50 kg and apply on the furrows and on the top one third of the ridges.

Sowing / Transplanting sorghum Transplanted crop

• Pull out the seedlings when the seedlings are 15 to 18 days old.
• Prepare slurry with 5 packets of Azospirillum (1000g/ha) and 5 packets (1000g/ha) of Phosphobacteria
or 10 packets of Azophos (2000 g/ha) in 40 lit. of water and dip the root portion of the seedlings in the
solution for 15-30 minutes and transplant.
• Plant one seedling per hill
• Plant the seedlings at a depth of 3 to 5 cm.
• Plant the seedlings on the side of the ridge, half the distance from the top of the ridge and the
bottom.
• Maintain a spacing of 15 cm between plants in the row which are 45 cm apart (15 plants/m2 )
Weed management

• Apply the pre-emergence herbicide Atrazine 50 WP @500 g/ha on 3 days after sowing as spray on the
soil surface, using Backpack / Knapsack / Rocker sprayer fitted with a flat fan nozzle using 900 litres of
water/ha. • Sorghum is slow growing in early stages and is adversely affected by weed competition.
Therefore keep the field free of weeds up to 45 days. For this, after pre-emergence herbicide
application, one hand weeding on 30-35 days after sowing may be given.
• If pulse crop is to be raised as an inter-crop in sorghum do not use Atrazine
Thinning of the seedlings and gap filling

Thin the seedlings and gap fill with the seedlings thinned out. Maintain a spacing of 15 cm between
plants after the first hand weeding on the 23rd day of sowing. Thin the pulse crop to a spacing of 10
cm between plants for all pulse crop except cowpea, for which spacing is maintained at 20 cm
between plants.

Water management : Usually sorghum is raised as rainfed crop. The irrigation should, however, be
provided whenever, rains are not received. At the time of flowering and grain filling stages, the crop
requires more water. If enough moisture is not there in the soil at the time of flowering and grain filling
stages, it should be irrigated at once. At no stage, the plants should be allowed to wilt. Suitable
drainage conditions should be provided for the removal of excess rain water from the field. About
400mm of water is required to raise grain sorghum crop
Harvesting and processing

• Consider the average duration of the crop and observe the crop. When the crop matures the leaves
turn yellow and present a dried up appearance.

• The grains are hard and firm. At this stage, harvest the crop by cutting the earheads separately. Cut
the straw after a week, allow it to dry and then stack. In the case of tall varieties, cut the stem at 10 to
15 cm above ground level and afterwards separate the earheads and stack the straw. Dry the earheads.
Thresh using a mechanical thresher or by drawing a stone roller over the earheads or by using cattle
and dry the produce and store.