Scientists, producers and industry from 20 countries met in Lubbock, Texas, for the 2026 Global Sorghum Conference to discuss drought, water scarcity, heat tolerance and markets for the crop, Farm Press reports.
Tim Lust, chief executive of National Sorghum Producers and head of the United Sorghum Checkoff Program, called this year's US crop "a tale of two worlds". The Texas South Plains, Colorado and central Kansas have suffered drought and heat while South Texas had excess rain, so harvested area and yields are expected to fall, though he still expects "a decent crop".
Lubbock is a centre of sorghum genetics: much of the base of hybrids grown in the US and abroad traces back to Texas, Lust said, and David Jordan, chair of the Global Sorghum Association and a leading breeder from Queensland, Australia, said many Australian developments, including drought tolerance, came from there. Jordan said the aim is not only better varieties but getting them to growers faster.
That needs money. "Sorghum is a crop that hasn't always had the research investment that, say, corn or soybeans have," Lust said, welcoming new funding and technologies such as gene editing that let the crop move faster.
Jordan said the crop is grown in tough, drought-prone places, and for smallholders in Africa better sorghum can mean the difference between sending a child to school or not. Sorghum's built-in heat tolerance, Lust added, is a gift as weather grows harsher. The report is by Shelley E. Huguley.
Photo: Swathi Sridharan / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Source: Farm Progress
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