Sorghum Diseases in India

Sorghum Diseases in South America
E. Teyssandier 1
Abstract
The relative importance of sorghum in the South American countries of Argentina, Colombia,
Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela is discussed. Incidence of major and minor diseases determine
current comparative disease situation. The grain molds, a new race of sorghum downy mildew, and
bacterial diseases in the Argentine situation are discussed. Grain molds, head blight, downy
mildew, stalk rot, and virus diseases, particularly the mosaic group, are major diseases in these
countries of South America. Bacterial diseases in Argentina, and perhaps elsewhere in South
America, may be more important than now recognized.
Introduction
The importance of sorghum in South America
can be seen by examining three statistics:
1986/87 area sown, average yield, and total
production (Table 1).
It is clear that Argentina is the major producer.
Chile, Peru, and Bolivia are not listed because
of the small area in these nations, nor is
Brazil, as Dr Casela is reporting on Brazil (this
volume).
South America's sorghum production accounts
for 11.6% of the world production
(1979/86 average). Argentina's production is
about 50% of South America's total. Of the total
area devoted to sorghum in South America,
grain types account for about 75% and forage
about 25% of production. Both are grown predominantly
for animal feed, i.e., dairy, poultry,
swine, and beef production.
Nowadays, most of South America's grainsorghum
area is sown with hybrids.
Prevalent Sorghum Diseases
Sorghum in South America is subject to damage
by several diseases, some limiting sorghum pro-
1. Pathologist/ Cargill S.A. Alem 623,2700 Pergamino, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Table 1. Sorghum production in Argentina,
Venezuela, Colombia, Uruguay, and Paraguay,
1986/87.
Area sown Production Yield
Country ('000 ha) ('000 t) (t ha -1 )
Argentina 1005 3040 3.2
Venezuela 369 850 2.2
Colombia 264 718 1.7/3.5 1
Uruguay 31 90 2.3
Paraguay 15 22 1.4
1. 1.7 t ha -1 - rainfed; 3.5 t ha -1 - supplemental irrigation.
duction. Others represent potential or minor
problems. Many outstanding papers have described
the importance of sorghum diseases in
each country of South America during the past
10 years. Information in these papers provide
the basis for comparison of the current disease
situation, by country, through use of a conventional
rating scale from 1 to 5, where 1 represents
a situation in which limitations by diseases are
very severe and maximum effort to solve the
problem and render sorghum production profitable
is required; 5 represents few disease lim-
Teyssandier, E. 1992. Sorghum diseases in South America. Pages 63-66 in Sorghum and millets diseases: a second world review,
(de Miliiano, W.A.J., Frederiksen, R.A., and Bengston, G.D., eds). Patancheru, A.P. 502 324, India: International Crops Research
institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics.
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