Single-Location Assessment of Growth Parameters of Sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] as a Basis for Multi-location Assessments

Sorghum is a globally important crop for food and nutrition security, feed, and industry. The crop meets the need of low-income populations that rely on resilient crops with minimal soil nutrient requirements. Therefore, programmes for improving the crop are important in alleviating malnutrition. Multi-location assessments of sorghum materials enable identification of stable accessions or genotypes in different agroecological conditions. However, such assessments are resource-intensive and time-consuming. Preliminary assessment of sorghum materials in a single location could allow for streamlining of multi-location trials to variable traits; thereby reducing the resources and time that otherwise would have been used in assessing the traits. In that note, the study reports a single-location assessment of sorghum accessions for variability in growth parameters. There were significant differences (p < 0.05), which signify variability, in plant height, leaf length, days to flowering, inflorescence length and width, days to grain maturity, vegetative seedling vigour, vegetative lodging susceptibility, vegetative overall plant aspect, inflorescence exsertion, inflorescence compactness shape, and grain covering. Therefore, the multi-location assessment of genetic variability in the sorghum accessions will include these parameters.