Question: What is sorghum used for?

Sorghum




Sorghum is a genus of flowering plants in the grass family Poaceae. Seventeen of the 25 species are native to Australia,[2][3] with the range of some extending to Africa, Asia, Mesoamerica, and certain islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.[4][5] One species is grown for grain, while many others are used as fodder plants, either cultivated in warm climates worldwide or naturalized, in pasture lands.[6] Sorghum is in the subfamily Panicoideae and the tribe Andropogoneae (the tribe of big bluestem and sugarcane).
Cultivation and uses
One species, Sorghum bicolor,[7] native to Africa with many cultivated forms now,[8] is an important crop worldwide, used for food (as grain and in sorghum syrup or "sorghum molasses"), animal fodder, the production of alcoholic beverages, and biofuels. Most varieties are drought- and heat-tolerant, and are especially important in arid regions, where the grain is one of the staples for poor and rural people. These varieties form important components of forage in many tropical regions. S. bicolor is an important food crop in Africa, Central America, and South Asia, and is the fifth-most important cereal crop grown in the world.[9]
In the early stages of the plants' growth, some species of sorghum can contain levels of hydrogen cyanide, hordenine, and nitrates which are lethal to grazing animals. When stressed by drought or heat, plants can also contain toxic levels of cyanide and nitrates at later stages in growth.
[10][11]
Global demand for sorghum increased dramatically between 2013 and 2015 when China began purchasing US sorghum crops to use as livestock feed as a substitute for domestically grown corn. China purchased around $1 billion worth of American sorghum per year until April 2018 when China imposed retaliatory duties on American sorghum as part of the trade war between the two countries.[12]
Diversity
Accepted species[13]

Sorghum amplum – northwestern Australia
Sorghum angustum – Queensland
Sorghum arundinaceum – Africa, Indian Subcontinent, Madagascar, islands of the western Indian Ocean
Sorghum bicolor– cultivated sorghum, often individually called sorghum, also known as durra, jowari, or milo. Native to Sahel region of Africa; naturalized in many places
Sorghum brachypodum – Northern Territory of Australia
Sorghum bulbosum – Northern Territory, Western Australia
Sorghum burmahicum – Thailand, Myanmar
Sorghum controversum – India
Sorghum × drummondii – Sahel and West Africa
Sorghum ecarinatum – Northern Territory, Western Australia
Sorghum exstans – Northern Territory of Australia
Sorghum grande – Northern Territory, Queensland
Sorghum halepense– Johnson grass – North Africa, islands of eastern Atlantic, southern Asia from Lebanon to Vietnam; naturalized in East Asia, Australia, the Americas
Sorghum interjectum – Northern Territory, Western Australia
Sorghum intrans – Northern Territory, Western Australia
Sorghum laxiflorum – Philippines, Lesser Sunda Islands, Sulawesi, New Guinea, northern Australia
Sorghum leiocladum – Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria
Sorghum macrospermum – Northern Territory of Australia
Sorghum matarankense – Northern Territory, Western Australia
Sorghum nitidum – East Asia, Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, New Guinea, Micronesia
Sorghum plumosum – Australia, New Guinea, Indonesia
Sorghum propinquum – China, Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, New Guinea, Christmas Island, Micronesia, Cook Islands
Sorghum purpureosericeum – Sahel from Mali to Tanzania; Yemen, Oman, India
Sorghum stipoideum – Northern Territory, Western Australia
Sorghum timorense – Lesser Sunda Islands, Maluku, New Guinea, northern Australia
Sorghum trichocladum – Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras
Sorghum versicolor – eastern + southern Africa from Ethiopia to Namibia; Oman
Sorghum virgatum – dry regions from Senegal to Israel

Formerly included
Many species once considered part of Sorghum, but now considered better suited to other genera include: Andropogon, Arthraxon, Bothriochloa, Chrysopogon, Cymbopogon, Danthoniopsis, Dichanthium, Diectomis, Diheteropogon, Exotheca, Hyparrhenia, Hyperthelia, Monocymbium, Parahyparrhenia, Pentameris, Pseudosorghum, Schizachyrium, and Sorghastrum.
See also
3-Deoxyanthocyanidin
Apigeninidin
Baijiu – Chinese alcoholic beverage distilled from sorghum
Millet
Push–pull technology pest control strategy for maize and sorghum



Further reading





, National Invasive Species Information Center, United States National Agricultural Library. Lists general information and resources for Johnsongrass.


, organization for the promotion and development of sweet Sorghum as a source for biofuels, especially ethanol