Ergot: A New Disease Threat to Sorghum in the Americas and Australia

Abstract

Sorghum, Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench, is the world’s fifth most important cereal crop, cultivated on about 45 million hectares for food, feed, beverage, and fodder. The most significant technological change since the 1960s has been the development and use of F1 hybrid seed (14), which has lead to a dramatic
improvement in the crop’s productivity. Sorghum cultivation in intensive, commercialized systems where yields average 3 to 5 t ha-1 relies almost totally on hybrid seed. In contrast, yields vary widely and average less than 1 t ha-1 in low-input production systems.