

The first steps have been taken to develop high-yielding and disease-resistant sorghum hybrids suitable for the dry northern zones of Nigeria. Commercially viable sorghum hybrids are already available for West and Central Africa (WCA) but suit only a single maturity band (100 km from north-south) for the guinea-race zone of Senegal, Mali and Burkina Faso. There are no hybrids available for the drier, more northern zones of Nigeria, which is the largest sorghum producing area in the region, growing mostly the caudatum- or durra-types.