All crops handbook

• Spraying of birds at their roosting places can be done under the auspices of the
Department of National Parks. On a small scale, bird scaring can be effective.
Diseases
Blast (Pyricularia oryzae)
• Causes bluish flesh on the leaves, which turn brown.
• High temperatures, humidity, dense stands and high levels of nitrogen favour the
disease.
• Sow early before the onset of the rainy season to reduce the disease..
Brown Leaf Spot (Cochliobolus myabeanus).
• Brown spots on the lamina and sheaths and black spots on the husks of the grain.
• Favoured by cold weather.
• Seed dressing with Vitavax or Baytan reduces the incidence of this disease.
Harvesting
• Can be done manually or mechanically.
• Below are a number of guidelines that will ensure that grain quality is preserved
during harvest operations, and that losses are kept to a minimum.
• Avoid delays in thrashing and avoid rewetting of harvested kennels
• Use proper thresher machine settings
• Clean grain thoroughly after threshing
• Harvest and thresh at night at 20-25% moisture content.
• Immediate threshing reduces the exposure of the crop to insects, birds, rodents,
disease, and moulds.
• Avoid piling of the crop after harvest as this generates heat that serves as an ideal
medium for growth of moulds, disease and pests.
Marketing
White seeded varieties are popular on the formal market while brown seeded varieties
dominate the informal market.
Sorghum production
Back Ground
• It is used for food, feed, building material and fuel
• .It is mainly considered a subsistence crop because of its tolerance to drought and
adaptation to dry tropical ecosystems.
Climatic requirements
• It is adapted to marginal rainfall areas when compared to other cereals
• Sorghum can be grown in any area that receives between 300 and 900 mm of rain
that should be well distributed through out the growing season.