Market Trends of sorghum seed Industry
Africa dominated the area under cultivation for sorghum due to its climatic conditions and water scarcity
- Sorghum is an important cereal crop grown globally for food and feed. It is most widely grown in the semi-arid tropics, where water availability is limited and frequently subjected to drought. The global sorghum cultivation area decreased by 8.2% from 2016 to 2022. Farmers prefer rice, wheat, and other cash crops over sorghum due to the high return on investment, leading to a decline in the acreage for sorghum.
- Africa has the largest area under cultivation for sorghum, which accounted for 69.5% of the global sorghum cultivation area in 2022. The acreage showed a decline of 6.2% between 2016 and 2022 due to the farmer's shift toward other crops, including corn, due to higher demand.
- In Asia-Pacific, the acreage under sorghum cultivation was 5.4 million hectares in 2022, representing 13.3 % of the global sorghum cultivation area. A factor driving the acreage under sorghum is its ability to yield and grow in dry and marginal land more than other crops. Its distinct genetics and composition allow it to grow in various climatic conditions where other crops cannot.
- In North America, the area under cultivation of sorghum increased by 13% between 2017 and 2022, which reached 4.1 million hectares in 2022. The United States alone accounted for 64.6% of North America's sorghum acreage in 2022. The rising export demand for sorghum, especially from the massive Chinese feed industry, is boosting seed sales from the commercially operated sorghum farms in the country. Thus, the acreage is expected to increase during the forecast period. South America and Europe have moderate markets for sorghum, and the cultivation area is low in these regions.
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Sorghum seeds with traits such as wider adaptability, disease resistance, and early maturity are witnessing high growth to meet the demand of processing industries
- Sorghum is mainly cultivated in Africa and North America as a grain and forage for cattle feed. It is one of the staple foods in Africa, where water scarcity is high. It is also one of the grain crops that can withstand low water conditions. With the increase in the cattle population and changes in weather conditions over the past five years in the region (such as droughts in Africa), varieties tolerant to drought are becoming popular. Furthermore, with the changing weather and soil conditions, there has been an increase in biotic and abiotic stress, which has led to the growth of broader adaptability varieties being adopted by the growers to earn high profits by producing high-quality crops in adverse conditions. Companies such as Advanta Seeds, KWS Saat & Co., and Land O' Lakes are providing wider adaptability traits to meet this high demand.
- Disease-resistant traits, as well as resistance to downy mildew, root rots, downy mosaic virus, and other diseases, are other major traits that are very popular and widely cultivated. These diseases cause significant yield losses during field conditions. Therefore, these varieties resist these diseases and increase the productivity of the crops. Additionally, other traits such as resistance to pests (stem borers, shoot-fly, and midge fly), low and high tannin content, early-medium matured varieties, and the color of the grains (red, white, pearl white, etc.) are primarily used globally. KWS Fenixus and BRS 310 - Graniferous by KWS are the products that help in the early maturity of the crop.
- The demand for advanced traits is expected to increase in the future due to increased demand from consumers, the processing industry, and dairy farmers.
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OTHER KEY INDUSTRY TRENDS COVERED IN THE REPORT
- Hybrid breeding technology dominates the global sorghum seed market due to its ability to offer higher yield and disease resistance
