Sorghum, an important staple food crop in Africa, South Asia, and Central America, is the fifth major cereal crop in the world after wheat, rice, maize and barley. It is also grown in the United States, Australia, and other developed nations for animal feed. An annual grass that varies between 0.5 and 5.0 meters in height, sorghum produces one or several tillers, which emerge initially from the base and later from the stem nodes. The flower is a panicle, usually erect, but sometimes recurved to form a goose neck. Sorghum, which is particularly adapted to drought prone areas, is a crop of hot, semiarid tropical environments with 400 600 mm rainfallareas that are too dry for maize. Sorghum is also found in temperate regions and at altitudes of up to 2300 meters in the tropics.

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