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The world sorghum and millet economies facts, trends and outlook

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Title The world sorghum and millet economies facts, trends and outlook
 
Creator ICRISAT, -
 
Subject Millets
Sorghum
 
Description Sorghum is the world's fifth most important cereal,
in terms of both production and area planted. Millet,
a general category for several species of smallgrained
cereal crops, is the world's seventh most important
cereal grain. Roughly 90 percent of the
world's sorghum area and 95 percent of the world's
millet area lie in the developing countries, mainly in
Africa and Asia. These crops are primarily grown in
agroecologies subject to low rainfall and drought.
Most such areas are unsuitable for the production of
other grains unless irrigation is available. Sorghum is
widely grown both for food and as a feed grain, while
millet is produced almost entirely for food.
The world sorghum economy can be broadly
categorized under two production and utilization
systems. Intensive, commercialized production, mainly
for livestock feed, characterize the developed world
and parts of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Hybrid seed, fertilizer and improved water management
technologies are used fairly widely, and yields
average 3-5 t/ha. Such commercialized production
systems cover less than 15 percent of the world's
sorghum area, but produce over 40 percent of global
output. Roughly 40 percent of this grain is traded on
international stockfeed markets. In sharp contrast
are the low-input, extensive production systems in
most of the developing world (with some exceptions
in Latin America and the Caribbean), where sorghum
is grown mainly for food. While improved varieties
are being adopted in such systems, particularly in
Asia, management practices generally remain less intensive
than in the commercialized systems. Fertilizer
rates are low and the adoption of improved moisture
conservation technologies is limited. As a result,
average yields remain between 0.5 and 1.0 t/ha in
many areas.
 
Publisher International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics
 
Date 1996
 
Type Monograph
NonPeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
 
Language en
 
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Identifier http://oar.icrisat.org/1024/1/RA_00279.pdf
ICRISAT, - (1996) The world sorghum and millet economies facts, trends and outlook. Monograph. International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics.