Abstract
Sorghum is a crop that has high adaptability to adverse edaphoclimatic conditions, maintaining a high productive performance, serving as a food source for animal humans, as well as raw material for ethanol production. In the semi-arid region, this crop is even more important, especially as an alternative in complementing the food diet, mainly animal, bringing cost reduction in the livestock sector, and favorably contribute to the balance of grain regulatory stocks and promoting balance in production. Thus, contributing to the sustainable growth of livestock in this region. However, evidence indicates a reduction in planted area in recent harvests due to an evident reduction in sorghum crop production performance under the edaphoclimatic conditions of that region, discouraging large-scale production. In this context, overcoming these obstacles has been the use of cultivars adapted to the edaphoclimatic conditions of these regions, as well as some modifications in crop planning and crop management. This review aimed to explore the general characteristics, classification of sorghum types, socioeconomic importance, ecophysiology, edaphology, phytosanitary agents and yield potential of sorghum cultivars currently available for cultivation in the Brazilian semiarid region. Sorghum cultivation in Brazil has shown a high productive potential, not only for its adaptive ability in different environmental conditions, but for its ease of mechanization from sowing to harvest.
Highlights
Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is currently considered the fifth most important cereal in the world, followed by wheat, corn, rice and barley (Luna et al, 2018). The production of this crop in Brazil has intensified since the 1970s, and presently, as the largest producers of this grain, in decreasing order, the states of Goiás, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso, Bahia and São Paulo, states where concentrate 89% of the grain sorghum production in the country
According to the follow-up of the Brazilian harvest (17/18 harvest), 34.3% of national production is concentrated in the state of Minas Gerais, with 210.4 thousand hectares planted, producing 732.8 thousand tons of grain, resulting in an average yield of 3,483 kg ha-1 of grain (CONAB, 2018)
In view of the above, this review aimed to explore the general characteristics, classification of sorghum types, socioeconomic importance, ecophysiology, edaphology, phytosanitary agents and productive potential of sorghum cultivars in the Brazilian semiarid region
Summary
Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is currently considered the fifth most important cereal in the world, followed by wheat, corn, rice and barley (Luna et al, 2018). Sorghum can adapt to various environments, especially under water deficiency conditions Due to this characteristic, the crop is an “extraordinary energy factory” of great utility in crop regions with irregular rainfall distribution and high air temperature (Almeida Filho et al, 2014; Griebel et al, 2019). Significant correlation values by the t-test were highlighted with bold edges, where negative correlations were expressed in red lines and positive correlations in green lines The efficiency of this innovative technique was reported by Ursem et al (2008), DiLeo et al (2011) and Silva et al (2016), showing that sorghum plants susceptible to diseases such as helminthosporium and anthracnose reduced the photosynthetic leaf area and, the life cycle of the sorghum genotypes studied
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