Sorghum-2011: A new dual purpose Sorghum bicolor cultivar for agro-climatic conditions of Pakistan

A new Sorghum bicolor cultivar Sorghum-2011 was developed at Fodder Research Sub-Station, Ayub Agricultural Research Institute, Faisalabad, Pakistan from a cross Sugrorib (local) x Australian No.7 (exotic). It was selected through pedigree breeding method during the year 1998-99. Homozygous progenies of pedigree No. F6-6019 was bulked in 2001-02 for yield evaluation. Its fodder yield potential along with grain yield was assessed in station, zonal, micro and national uniform fodder yield trials during the year 2002-03 to 2009-10. Sorghum-2011 performed better in all these trials than existing cultivars (Hegari, JS-263 and JS-2002). Its maximum fodder yield potential (75.46 tons/ha) was attained in 2007-08 in NUFYT at Agricultural Research Institute, Dera Ismail Khan. It is a dual purpose variety that produces high tonnage with good grain yield, high water use efficiency, less fertility requirements, excellent nutritional quality, robust cover crop and green chop fresh fodder. In addition, it contains one percent more sugar content contributing 130 kg sugar per hectare than existing varieties without any additional cost of production. It has a wide adaptability in targeted production areas of Pakistan. The variety Sorghum-2011 is superior in morphological characters i.e. plant height (255cm), number of leaves per plant (16) and maximum length x breadth (339 cm2) giving higher forage yield (70 t/ha) and grain yield (2.94 t/ha) as compared to commercial check varieties JS-263 and JS-2002. It has 2.11 and 13.98 percent low HCN content than JS-2002 and popular sweet variety Hegari, respectively. It has potential to fill the gap in supply and demand for summer fodders and also may be helpful in reducing export of sorghum seed in Pakistan. Due to these remarkable features, the new strain F-9917 named as Sorghum-2011 was released during the year 2011 for general cultivation in Pakistan.