Organic agriculture promote energetic saving, trough the right choice of alternative ways respect to common practices used in conventional cultivation processes. Corn represent one of the main animal nutrition feedstuff even if its culture is strongly linked with a high use of water for irrigation, especially in region characterized by a low rain period during spring and summer. So, other solutions are required in the name of environment and money saving. Africans used Sorghum since hundred of years thanks to its resistance to dry climate conditions.

We can evaluate that corn needs 4500 m3/ha of water; on the contrary Sorghum requires almost 2200m3/ha. Therefore, we have to spry almost 550 litres of water in order to produce 1 kg of corn seeds, while only 350 litres for 1 kg of Sorghum grains for an harvest of almost 6 and 8 tons/ha respectively.

That reveal the central importance of Sorghum in crop rotations linked with animal husbandry.

Unfortunately in Italy we have a paradox: no one sell organic Sorghum seeds since too many years even if south regions have a strong summer water deficiency. In addition there is a lack of any encouraging promotional programs to move farms into organic Sorghum seeds production. Besides nearly the whole commercialised Sorghum has been treated with pesticides, such as Tetrasol® (Thiram), making it unusable in organic agriculture.

In conclusion, I’m wondering why it happens and which is the best solution to adopt! In the next years I will try to make Sorghum seeds by my self, facing all the expected technical difficulties - such as mildew, seed germinability, and so on… - that are common and frequent in a small farms, but irrelevant for an organized corporation…

Waiting some interesting suggestions,
Best wishes.
Jacopo Goracci

jgoracciATvetDOTunipiDOTit
jacopogoracciAThotmailDOTcom