{"title":"Progress in Sorghum Improvement for Early Maturity, Harvest Index, and Water-Use Efficiency: Proxy Traits for Integrative Drought Tolerance Breeding","authors":"Byamungu Lincoln Zabuloni, Hussein Shimelis, Seltene Abady Tesfamariam, Maryke Labuschagne, Elize Botha","doi":"10.1002/fes3.70093","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Drought associated with climate change has increasingly endangered the sustainability and potential of agriculture, notably crop production. Therefore, there is a need to develop adaptive and resilient crop varieties for sustainable crop production and food systems. Sorghum [<i>Sorghum bicolor</i> (L.) Moench] is a vital crop in drought-prone areas, supporting the livelihoods of over 750 million people globally. Sorghum grain yield is low in arid and semi-arid regions, with a mean of 0.9 t/ha compared to the global average of 2.5 t/ha due to a lack of improved varieties tolerant to recurrent drought and heat and biotic constraints and desirable product profiles. Integrative breeding for early maturity, high harvest index, and water use efficiency (WUE) is an economical and sustainable strategy to improve sorghum productivity and mitigate drought effects. These are crucial proxy traits that can guide sorghum improvement for drought tolerance, but current information regarding their simultaneous selection and breeding progress is sparse and scattered; hence, the review aims to address this gap. The paper highlights innovations and advances in sorghum improvement and progress towards early maturity, high harvest index, and WUE. The first section examines the impact of drought on sorghum production, integrative pre-breeding and breeding of sorghum, opportunities for breeding early-maturing, high-yielding, and water-use-efficient sorghum varieties, and the associated breeding progress and genetic gains. Further, it outlines the opportunities and challenges of the available breeding methods for developing climate-smart, early-maturing, and drought-tolerant sorghum varieties. The information presented in this paper can guide agronomists and breeders in developing and deploying new-generation sorghum varieties with integrative traits adapted to arid and semi-arid regions.</p>","PeriodicalId":54283,"journal":{"name":"Food and Energy Security","volume":"14 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.0000,"publicationDate":"2025-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/fes3.70093","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Food and Energy Security","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/fes3.70093","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"FOOD SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Drought associated with climate change has increasingly endangered the sustainability and potential of agriculture, notably crop production. Therefore, there is a need to develop adaptive and resilient crop varieties for sustainable crop production and food systems. Sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] is a vital crop in drought-prone areas, supporting the livelihoods of over 750 million people globally. Sorghum grain yield is low in arid and semi-arid regions, with a mean of 0.9 t/ha compared to the global average of 2.5 t/ha due to a lack of improved varieties tolerant to recurrent drought and heat and biotic constraints and desirable product profiles. Integrative breeding for early maturity, high harvest index, and water use efficiency (WUE) is an economical and sustainable strategy to improve sorghum productivity and mitigate drought effects. These are crucial proxy traits that can guide sorghum improvement for drought tolerance, but current information regarding their simultaneous selection and breeding progress is sparse and scattered; hence, the review aims to address this gap. The paper highlights innovations and advances in sorghum improvement and progress towards early maturity, high harvest index, and WUE. The first section examines the impact of drought on sorghum production, integrative pre-breeding and breeding of sorghum, opportunities for breeding early-maturing, high-yielding, and water-use-efficient sorghum varieties, and the associated breeding progress and genetic gains. Further, it outlines the opportunities and challenges of the available breeding methods for developing climate-smart, early-maturing, and drought-tolerant sorghum varieties. The information presented in this paper can guide agronomists and breeders in developing and deploying new-generation sorghum varieties with integrative traits adapted to arid and semi-arid regions.
期刊介绍：
Food and Energy Security seeks to publish high quality and high impact original research on agricultural crop and forest productivity to improve food and energy security. It actively seeks submissions from emerging countries with expanding agricultural research communities. Papers from China, other parts of Asia, India and South America are particularly welcome. The Editorial Board, headed by Editor-in-Chief Professor Martin Parry, is determined to make FES the leading publication in its sector and will be aiming for a top-ranking impact factor.
Primary research articles should report hypothesis driven investigations that provide new insights into mechanisms and processes that determine productivity and properties for exploitation. Review articles are welcome but they must be critical in approach and provide particularly novel and far reaching insights.
Food and Energy Security offers authors a forum for the discussion of the most important advances in this field and promotes an integrative approach of scientific disciplines. Papers must contribute substantially to the advancement of knowledge.
Examples of areas covered in Food and Energy Security include:
• Agronomy
• Biotechnological Approaches
• Breeding & Genetics
• Climate Change
• Quality and Composition
• Food Crops and Bioenergy Feedstocks
• Developmental, Physiology and Biochemistry
• Functional Genomics
• Molecular Biology
• Pest and Disease Management
• Post Harvest Biology
• Soil Science
• Systems Biology
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