Impacts of date of sowing and cultivars on growth and development of fodder sorghum – a review

Livestock rearing is one of the major occupations in India and is making significant contribution to the country GDP. The regional and seasonal variations in the temperature and rainfall distribution have been the major factors influencing the economy of a region. In India, 70% of total fodder grown region is rainfed and vulnerable to climatic variability. Sorghum crop is adaptive to vast environmental conditions in India. It is able to sustain high temperature and less moisture conditions. It provides green fodder to the animals for a considerable length of period. Now-a-days many new improved cultivars of fodder sorghum are coming up for increased production and quality of fodder. Therefore, it is necessary to study the response of these cultivars to different times of sowings. The sowing time of the sorghum affects the fodder supply to the considerable extent and hence, optimum time of sowing should be done in order to achieve maximum fodder yield along with maintaining the regular supply of the green fodder including quality. Three climatic parameters viz., temperature, rainfall and light are most important for optimum crop growth and development and thereby exploits the potentiality of a crop.
Study on performance of fodder sorghum varieties under varied times of sowing is in its Infancy. Literature on earlier work pertaining to fodder sorghum were collected under some broad headings like effect of weather elements on growth and development and growth, quality parameters and yield of fodder sorghum as influenced by time of sowing and varieties are briefly reviewed in this treatise.