Breeding Techniques for the Major Sorghum Market Segments: Grain, Forage, Biomass, and Soluble Sugars

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is a versatile crop that can be cultivated for the production of food, feed, fodder, and as a feedstock for the production of renewable chemicals and fuels. Given these diverse uses of sorghum, four distinct types of cultivated sorghum have been developed to meet specific needs: Grain sorghums, forage sorghums, sweet sorghums, and biomass sorghums. Plant breeding has as its main goal the release of improved germplasm that meets the needs of the end user(s) in a particular geographic area. These needs will change over time as a function of the preferences of consumers, new industrial processes, and the identification of novel traits, some of which may result in new uses for the crop. This chapter starts with a brief summary of the different breeding methods for sorghum cultivars and hybrids, and then provides a general overview of the uses of the different types of sorghum, the target traits in breeding programs, and the available genetic variation that can be exploited to achieve those targets. The focus is on traits with global relevance, with the understanding that cultivation in specific geographic areas or for specific industrial purposes will require additional breeding targets.