Sorghum stemborer species remains key yield limiting factor for sorghum production in the Nigerian semi-arid region. When they can afford, farmers rely almost solely on synthetic insecticides for control. Owing to the misuse and environmental and health challenges attributed to the use of synthetic insecticides, a two-year field study was carried out at the University of Maiduguri Research Farm...

BACKGROUND Sweet sorghum is a domesticated grass containing a sugar-rich juice that can be readily utilized for ethanol production. Most of the sugar is stored inside the cells of the stalk tissue and can be difficult to release, a necessary step before conventional fermentation. While this crop holds much promise as an arid land sugar source for biofuel production, a number of challenges must ...

Sorghum is the fifth most important cereal crop in the world. It is largely grown on marginal soils with residual moisture where other major cereals cannot be grown due to inadequate water. Sorghum is a multipurpose crop and the species shows great diversity. For a large part of Asia and Africa, sorghum’s grain is used as food and its stalk as fodder and feed. In rest of the world, sorghum is c...

In our earlier investigation, a fungal isolate Penicillium citrinum VFI-51 and its secondary metabolite was reported to have antagonistic potential against Botrytis cinerea, the causative agent of Botrytis gray mold disease in chickpea. In the present investigation, P. citrinum VFI-51 was further evaluated for its antagonistic potential against Macrophomina phaseolina, the causative agent of ch...

Sweet sorghum has been regarded as a typical species for rich soluble-sugar and high lignocellulose residues, but their effects on biomass digestibility remain unclear. In this study, we examined total 63 representative sweet sorghum accessions that displayed a varied sugar level at stalk and diverse cell wall composition at bagasse. Correlative analysis showed that both soluble-sugar and dry-b...

Colletotrichum falcatum, a concealed fungal ascomycete causes red rot, which is a serious disease in sugarcane. It infects economically important stalk tissues, considered as store house of sugar in sugarcane. The study is to find genetic complexities of C. falcatum in establishing this as a stalk infecting pathogen and to decipher the unique lifestyle of this pathogen using NGS technology. We ...

Abstract Sorghum, Sorghum bicolor L. Moench (Poaceae), is a highly valued crop cultivated worldwide, with the grain and stover being of equal importance in some developing countries. can produce high yields even under adverse environmental conditions, however, damage from insect pests at various stages plant’s development reduce its productivity, impacting low-income farmers Important sorghum i...

The research work on sweet sorghum carried out at the Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) during last twenty-five years has been summarized. American lines were crossed with a local Indian fodder/grain variety to produce varieties with a juicy stalk and good quality grain. Further breeding was carried out to produce varieties and hybrids giving high yield of good quality grain while ...