There’s news of the release of a perennial sorghum variety in Ethiopia:
“The benefit of this new variety is … that once you sow it, you don’t need to till the land for up to five years,” said Loul, adding that growing sorghum preserves the environment and prevents erosion by providing vegetation cover throughout the year.
It was apparently developed by Re-nature Eternal Life Agro Processing SC, but there are few details on its website. I’m trying to find out more. Anyone out there know anything about this?
I made several collecting trips to the west side of Lake Turkana in Kenya for sorghum. There was a `perennial’ grown by rattooning each plant – reputedly up to 16 times – and harvesting each time. This would make the plant 4-5 years old. The variety was grown in sandy wadis (and presumably washed away during floods). I never found out whether this variety was a genetically distinct true perennial or just a result of a method of management. The Ethiopian border was just to the north of Lake Turkana so it may be the same variety.