More farmers are showing interest in #sorghum, a #DroughtTolerant grain. The crop is poised to expand in the U.S. – especially if Americans start consuming it.
#HarvestPublicMedia | By Michael Marks
Published September 28, 2026
Excerpt: "Sorghum, also called #milo, is a kind of cereal like corn or wheat. It’s versatile — you can grind it into flour, pop it like popcorn, or boil it, like Obenchain did.
"While the U.S. is the world’s leading producer of sorghum it’s hardly a staple here. Yet the grain could become an attractive option for farmers for one reason: it can grow through #drought.
"In order to develop the market farmers would need, though, more Americans have to eat it.
" 'The irony is the United States is the number one [sorghum] growing country in the world, but we either export a lot of it or we use it for other uses like ethanol, animal feed, things like that, and it’s just not as well known,' said Lanier Dabruzzi, director of nutrition and food innovation for the Sorghum Checkoff.
Farming ‘where things are tough’
"In other parts of the world, sorghum is a staple. It’s commonly consumed by people in sub-Saharan #Africa and the #MiddleEast.
" 'Sorghum in #Ghana is largely for food. All the sorghum production we do is targeted for human consumption,' said Kenneth Opare-Obuobi, a Ghanaian sorghum researcher who attended the conference with the Africa Dryland Crops Improvement Network.
"In Ghana, #ClimateChange is pushing more farmers to plant sorghum, according to Opare-Obuobi.
" 'We are equally experiencing highly unpredictable rainfall patterns, and as a result we are having some bit of drought. But it turns out that sorghum is a bit hardy so farmers are tending to now shift toward sorghum,' he said.
"Sorghum thrives in conditions that make other crops wilt. It welcomes heat and tolerates drought. The plant grows deep roots to capture hard-to-reach moisture beneath the soil, according to Sarah Sexton Bowser, director for the Center for Sorghum Improvement at Kansas State University."
Read more:
https://www.kcur.org/environment-agriculture/2026-09-28/grain-sorghum-drought-food
#SolarPunkSunday #FoodSecurity #HeatTolerantCrops #DroughtTolerantPlants #ClimateChangeGardening