Agriculture and Environment: Sorghum

Better Management Practices: Reduce Pesticide Use

Another increasingly important set of impacts from sorghum cultivation are problems related to the indiscriminate and often unnecessary use of pesticides and herbicides during production.

Most of these impacts can be prevented, or at the very least reduced, by the judicious use of agrochemicals.

More targeted use of chemicals
Using such chemicals to address specific problems, rather than prophylactically or indiscriminately, will not only reduce the environmental impacts, but will also make producers more financially viable. In addition, it will make them less dependent on chemical solutions for addressing production problems.

Controlling Striga
For example, there are effective measures for addressing the problem of the striga weed pest. As mentioned above, early planting tends to reduce the impacts of striga. Deeper ploughing tends to reduce its impacts as well. Maintaining ground cover and seeding at optimal times also help to reduce the impact of the weed.

If carried out over a number of years, these approaches can help to reduce or even eliminate striga. Recently, newer varieties of sorghum have been introduced that are more resistant to striga infestation, thus preventing degradation of the soil that occurs when striga takes over a field.