Abstract
Sorghum bicolor (L) is classified globally as the fifth most important cereal crop after wheat, maize, rice, and barley. The demand for sorghum in Kenya is increasingly at 275,000 T per annum against the estimated production value of 150,000 T, providing income to more than 3 million people. Apart from food, Kenya Breweries Limited consistently provides a ready market to a huge amount of sorghum estimated at 60,000 tonnes annually and is expected to rise with time. In Kenya, the sorghum productivity level is at 0.7 t/ha in Arid and Semi-arid Lands areas (ASALs), which is far much below the potential yield ranging between 2 and 5 ton/ha. Sorghum’s rich diversity in ASAL areas makes it suitable for adaptability to Climate Smart Agriculture, Technologies Innovations Management Practices. This makes it a worthy crop for supporting livelihoods under the harsh climatic condition caused by climate change. In Kenya, Sorghum crop is usually cultivated at 0–2200 m above sea level in Eastern, Nyanza, and Coastal regions. Being a C4 plant, it has an efficient carbon dioxide fixation that makes it perform well in lower altitude areas with high temperatures, low, intermittent, and unreliable rainfall. Farmers in such areas opt to grow local varieties instead of the high-yielding hybrids due to poverty, inability to afford irrigation facilities, and essential necessities for production. Drought and water stress caused by inadequate and unevenly distributed rainfall in ASALs limit sorghum productivity. Also, pests, diseases, low yields, weeds, local planting seeds, and use of fertilizers are other challenges. On the other hand, enhancement of drought tolerance in arid climatic conditions involves mechanisms that maintain plant water status upon which genes and proteins are activated. This process most likely can affect plants resulting in a good number of physiological and biochemical changes that are crucial for growth and survival. Among them, changes in grain weight and protein content may affect the malt quality. As a defense mechanism in response to drought, sorghum landraces native to ASALs are likely to activate and involve participation of numerous proteins that may affect the grain and malt quality. It is imperative to come up with a drought-tolerant sorghum variety with good grain and malt quality and new technologies to be recommended to the stakeholders for improved sorghum production.
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Njinju, S.M., Gweyi, J.O., Mayoli, R.N. (2022). Drought-Resilient Climate Smart Sorghum Varieties for Food and Industrial Use in Marginal Frontier Areas of Kenya. In: Kumar, A., Kumar, P., Singh, S.S., Trisasongko, B.H., Rani, M. (eds) Agriculture, Livestock Production and Aquaculture. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93262-6_3
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