sorghum

" Grain sorghum is utilized in food and other industries around the world. In the past 50 years, the area planted to sorghum worldwide has increased 60％ and the yield by 244％. Area planted is currently constant at 41 million hectares with yield increasing to a projected 1.5 tons/ha by 2010 and production at 63 million tons. Worldwide, more than 50％ of sorghum is grown directly for human consumption. World production of sorghum trails far behind that of the ""Big Four"" cereals (rice, maize, wheat and barley, in that order). But it is agriculture's leading minor grain crop, with the harvest in year 2000 estimated at some 60 million tons. About 90％ of the area planted to sorghum lies in developing countries, mainly in Africa and Asia, where it is grown generally for food by low-income farmers. The remaining 10％ is made up of large-scale commercial farms, most of them in the developed world, which produce sorghum mainly for livestock feed. Those farms account for more than 40％ of global sorghum output. Both area and production of sorghum in China are down whereas yield has increased from 2.72 mt in 1989 to 4.09 in 1999, a 50％ increase. Here with feed use increasing."