Sorghum - icrisat

text/research/grep/homepage/sorghum/
breeding/main.htm) for all male sterile lines,
restorers, varieties and hybrids with pedigrees
and characteristics.
Alternate uses and methods of
technology sharing
Research on alternative uses of grain and sweet
stalked sorghums has helped broaden the demand
for sorghum and innovative mechanisms of
technology sharing ensuring higher income to
farmers. Sorghum is suitable in the production of a
variety of food and non-food products. Apart from
traditional foods, sorghum is extensively used in the
preparation of other foods such as snacks,
“predigested” weaning food, pop sorghum etc.
Besides these, the industrial sorghum-based food
products include alcoholic beverages (Burukutu,
dolo, pito, talla), sour/opaque beers (Marisa, busaa,
merrisa, urwaga, mwenge, munkoyo, bantu beer,
kaffir beer, sorghum beer, utshwala, utywala, ikigage)
and European-type beers. Rainy season sorghum
(which is frequently affected by grain mold and hence
fetch lower price) is increasingly being used in the
poultry feed rations in Andhra Pradesh state in India
for broiler production as a result of the establishment
of farmer – poultry feed and products industry – user
coalition facilitated by ICRISAT. Sorghum has a great
potential in ethanol production too.
• ICRISAT research helped to bring out the full
potential of the sorghum use in confectionary
food preparations and other industries
(Figure 29).
• Novel technology exchange mechanisms, such
as farmer-scientist-industry-user coalition
building for use of sorghum in poultry feed, have
been successfully established by ICRISAT.
• The development of high yielding, sweet stalked
sorghum varieties and hybrid parents (for hybrid
development) attracted several private industries
in India to venture into ethanol production from
sweet stalk sorghum as a supplement to
sugarcane molasses to meet the possible
increased demand following the Indian
government’s policy to blend 5% ethanol in petrol
and likely increase of this proportion to 10%.
Figure 29. Use of sorghum in confectionary and brewing
industries has broadened the demand for sorghum and
thereby higher income to sorghum producers.
• National Research Center for Sorghum (NRCS),
Hyderabad, India in collaboration with ICRISAT
has developed a sweet stalk sorghum hybrid
(NSSH 104) for the first time in India by involving
ICSA 38 (an ICRISAT-bred sweet stalk seed
parent) and SSV 84 (NRCS-bred male
parent/R-line) and is being recommended for
release as special purpose sorghum.
• Tie-up with Rusni Distilleries Pvt Ltd,
Hyderabad, a private sector based in India, to
incubate ethanol production technology from
sweet sorghum cultivars developed at ICRISAT.
• A novel mechanism of public-private
partnership sorghum consortium, first of its kind
in CGIAR, is established successfully at ICRISAT
to enhance the adoption of hybrids and to
receive continuous feedback on the
performance of the breeding materials.
Publications
The information on strategic research, breeding
processes and products are published in refereed
journals, conference proceedings, posters and
success story fliers. These publications not only
serve as vehicles to share the information but they
also reflect the quality and innovations in science.
ICRISAT has so far produced 886 publications
(from 1977 to 2004) (Annexure IV). These are
• Refereed journal articles – 427
• Book chapters – 49
• Conference papers – 291
•Others – 119
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