The role of introduced sorghum and millets in Ethiopian agriculture

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) is one of the most widely grown cereal crops in Ethiopia. It is a staple food crop on which the lives of millions of poor Ethiopians depend. It has tremendous uses for the Ethiopian farmer and no part of this plant is ignored. Sorghum grows in a wide range of agroecologies most importantly in the moisture stressed parts where other crops can least survive and food insecurity is rampant. Being an indigenous crop, tremendous amount of variability exists in the country. As a result, a large number of accessions have been collected by the joint efforts of the Ethiopian Sorghum Improvement Project (ESIP) and the Institute of Biodiversity Conservation (IBC). Many of these accessions have been evaluated in the country and some were released as commercial cultivars for the highlands. Still others have been used in supplementing the germplasm base of the international and national agricultural systems around the globe. Gebrekidan (1973) elucidated the importance of the Ethiopian sorghum germplasm in the world collection. However, in recent years, the variability is becoming less in the lowlands where vulnerability due to recurrent drought and incidence of pests mainly spotted stem borer (Chilo partellus) is very high. The local cultivars in these areas are late-maturing resulting in failure of the crop as the rain ends early in the season before or at the time of flowering. For these areas, it is indispensable to introduce early-maturing germplasm that can mature within the range of the rainy season. Over the years, a large number of early-maturing sorghum and millet varieties and hybrid parents and populations with various desirable traits have been introduced and evaluated. This article intends to give a short account of the role of introduced sorghum and millets in the Ethiopian agriculture.