

Sorghum is one of the first dryland cereals to benefit from the intervention in Mali of near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) to phenotype major plant traits in upcoming new varieties and speed up the analysis of the large numbers of potential new varieties emanating from breeding programs. Stem quality is the first key trait being assessed in candidate progeny by a Fourier-transformationbased NIRS instrument, namely a multipurpose analyzer (MPA, Bruker Optics), at the Sotuba Biotechnology Laboratory of Mali’s Institute of Rural Economy (IER)