Sorghum
Sorghum is the drought-defying cereal of the hot semi-arid tropics — a grass that keeps a crop where maize would wither. It anchors food security across the Sahel, the Horn of Africa and dryland India, and doubles as a feed and biofuel grain in the Americas.
How it grows
Sorghum grows on a tall, upright stalk, the ear held clear of the ground.
What it’s worth to grow
Farm-gate value = the price farmers are paid per kilogram (FAOSTAT producer prices, median of 232 positive country-year observations spanning 2018–2024). It tracks how costly and labour-intensive a crop is to grow — almonds and vanilla command a premium; potatoes and cereals are cheap staples.
Where Earth's climate suits sorghum
Climatic suitability only — scored for every 0.5° of the planet from this crop's temperature and rainfall tolerances (FAO EcoCrop) on AgroClim 1991–2025 normals (AgERA5 temperature, CHIRPS/ERA5 rainfall). It shows where the rain-fed climate permits the crop, not where it is grown today; irrigation lets many crops thrive in drier country than the map suggests (California, Egypt, the Indus and Nile).
Who grows it — and where the climate merely allows it
The climate where it grows
— mean monthly temperature ▍ monthly rainfall — averaged over the actual growing areas (the suitable cells) inside each country, so it reflects where the crop is really grown, not the national average. AgroClim 1991–2025 normals. The 🌧 badge is the last 3 months’ rainfall as a percentage of the 1991–2020 CHIRPS normal (through 2025-12) — the current drought/deluge signal.
Climate envelope · FAO EcoCrop
Deep bar = optimal range; pale bar = absolute tolerance. Beyond the pale bar the crop fails. Latitude tolerance ±45° · soil pH 5–8.
Growing calendar & hazards
A warm-season annual sown with the rains and harvested as they end; it can pause in drought and resume when water returns.
- Frost. Frost-sensitive; needs a frost-free warm season.
- Erratic rain. Even this tough crop fails if the short rains collapse entirely.
- Birds. Flocks can strip the exposed grain heads before harvest.