Development of High Fodder-Yielding Sweet Sorghum Strain Madhura-2 (NARI-SS-5) for Production under Monsoon and Post-Monsoon Seasons

Development of High Fodder-Yielding Sweet Sorghum Strain Madhura-2 (NARI-SS-5) for Production under Monsoon and Post-Monsoon Seasons

Sweet sorghum owing to its high fodder yielding ability coupled with sweet and juicy stalks is more often used as a fodder crop in India than for its intended use as a sugar or bio-energy crop (Nimbkar et al., 2010). In addition, fodder quality of sweet sorghum is as good as that of the fodder sorghums. Sweet sorghum is also produced as forage in China (Zhu, 1998) and USA (Suttie, 2000). Sorghum genotypes rich in sugar are reported to have a better quality of fodder than the regular genotypes with low sugar content (Singh and Katiyar, 2003). With its concerted efforts for over four decades in improvement of sweet sorghum, Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute, at Phaltan has developed a high fodder-yielding sweet sorghum strain Madhura-2 (NARI-SS-5) by crossing an American sweet sorghum cultivar Keller with an indigenous genotype NSS-218 following the pedigree method of breeding. Madhura-2 is highly suitable for production under monsoon and post-monsoon seasons and present paper discusses its performance in the two seasons.