Lost Crops of Africa Volume I: Grains (1996) / Chapter Skim
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7 Sorghum
7 Sorghum
Pages 127-144
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From page 127... ...
It is among the most photosynthetically efficient plants.2 It has one of the highest dry matter accumulation rates. It is one of the quickest maturing food plants (certain types can mature in as little as 75 days and can provide three harvests a year)
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From page 128... ...
It withstands high rainfall-even some waterlogging.4 Recent research in Israel has shown that it also has some tolerance to salt an increasingly useful feature for any crop these days.5 But most importantly, it can endure hot and dry conditions. Indeed, it can produce on sites so burning and arid that no other major grain with the exception of pearl milletcan be consistently grown.6 Its massive and deep-penetrating roots are mainly responsible for this drought tolerance, but the plant has other drought-defying mechanisms as well.
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From page 129... ...
Moreover, if the much feared greenhouse effect warms up the world, sorghum could become the crop of choice over large parts of the areas that are today renowned as breadbaskets, rice lands, or corn belts. In sum, it seems certain that no matter what happens sorghum will assume greater importance, especially to backstop the increasingly beleaguered food supplies of the tropics and subtropics.
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From page 130... ...
The chapter that follows highlights specialty sorghums unusually promising food 9 The alcohol-soluble fraction makes up about 59 percent of the total protein in normal sorghum. The amount of this indigestible protein is lower in other cereals.
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From page 131... ...
The area from Tanzania to South Africa is the center for the kafir race. All of these separate sorghums have fed countless generations.
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From page 132... ...
In addition, major advances specifically in Africa's sorghum production are likely to come from methods and technologies that are beyond the scope of the following chapters: from controlling birds, locusts, and parasitic weeds to new approaches to milling, grain storage, and erosion control. These are discussed in appendixes A and B
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From page 133... ...
In other words, it hardly differs from whole-grain maize or wheat. When the seed coat and germ are separated to leave a stable flour (from the starchy endosperms, the chemical composition is about 83 percent carbohydrate, 12 percent protein, 0.6 percent fat, 1 percent fiber, and 0.4 percent ash.
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From page 134... ...
. Most samples fall in the 9 percent protein category and are almost always 1 or 2 percent higher than in maize.
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From page 135... ...
Although a primary food for millions of Africans, Asians, and Latin Americans, sorghum is low in protein digestibility. It must be properly processed to improve its digestibility.
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From page 136... ...
In its properties, sorghum starch resembles maize starch, and the two can be used interchangeably in many industrial and feed applications. When boiled with water, the starch forms an opaque paste of medium viscosity.
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From page 137... ...
Even bodies desperately in need of more muscle, enzymes, blood, and brain continue passing prolamine that might otherwise provide the necessary amino acids. However, sorghum has a second problem as far as food quality is concerned.
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From page 138... ...
type or unless brown seed coats are carefully removed, some tannins remain, and this reduces sorghum's nutritional effectiveness. Yet a third problem is that when sorghum grain is germinated, a cyanogenic glucoside is formed.
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From page 139... ...
The resulting ability to yield grain under dry conditions makes sorghum a crucial tool in the fight against world hunger.
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From page 140... ...
The sorghums of India are related to those of the African coast between Somalia and Mozambique. Sorghum probably traveled overland from India and reached China along the silk route about 2,000 years ago.
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From page 141... ...
Jowar is notably important on the black-cotton soils, which are notoriously difficult to farm. It is one of the few crops that withstands the wildly fluctuating water tables that produce bottomless mud in the wet season and something resembling cracked concrete in the dry.
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From page 142... ...
Some of these traditional forms are extremely susceptible to photoperiod and reach impossible heights if not planted as daylengths shorten. On the other hand, the dwarf sorghums of the temperate zone are unaffected by daylength and can be planted year-round where climates permit.
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From page 143... ...
Soil Type Sorghum tolerates an amazing array of soils. It can grow well on heavy clays, especially the deep-cracking and black cotton soils of the tropics.
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From page 144... ...
Page 144
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