Sorghum (Jowar)

1. Land Preparation Sorghum tolerates poorer land than maize, but it still repays a fine seedbed. Plough twice and plank. On sandy Thal soils, add 4–5 tons of well-rotted farmyard manure per acre to hold moisture — this matters more than any fertiliser you…

Kharif Sowing Jun–Jul Harvest Nov–Dec 25–35 maund per acre

Land Preparation

Sorghum tolerates poorer land than maize, but it still repays a fine seedbed. Plough twice and plank. On sandy Thal soils, add 4–5 tons of well-rotted farmyard manure per acre to hold moisture — this matters more than any fertiliser you apply later.

Sowing Time & Method

Punjab and Sindh: sow with the first monsoon rain, mid-June to mid-July. Rainfed Thal: wait for 25 mm of rain to wet the soil to plough depth. Sow in rows 18 inches apart at 1–1.5 inch depth. Grain types are sown thinner than fodder types.

Seed Rate & Treatment

Grain sorghum: 8–10 kg per acre. Fodder sorghum: 25–30 kg per acre. Treat seed with a fungicide before sowing to prevent smut, which is common where farm-saved seed is used year after year.

Fertilizer

One bag DAP at sowing, plus one bag urea split — half at sowing and half with the first rain or irrigation after 30 days. Sorghum responds less to nitrogen than maize; over-applying only makes the crop lodge.

Irrigation

Mostly grown rainfed. Where water is available, the critical stages are booting and grain filling — one irrigation at each roughly doubles grain yield in a dry year. Sorghum survives drought by going dormant, so it recovers from stress better than maize.

Weed Control

Weed Damage Control Product
Johnson Grass (Baru) Takes the crop's water and nitrogen all season and stands above the rows, so the heads fill light. Dig the rootstocks out before sowing — no selective spray can tell it from the crop
Barnyard Grass (Swank) Matches the seedling height for height in the first month and takes the light before the crop gets away. Hoeing at 20–25 days
Horse Purslane (Itsit) Mats over the ground through the first 30 days and takes the moisture and light the seedlings need in the weeks that decide the crop. Hoeing at 20–25 days
Purple Nutsedge (Deela) Draws nitrogen from the top soil through the first month, the weeks the crop can least spare it. Hand weeding, lifting the tubers out with the plant — it comes again from any tuber left behind
Cholai (Tandla) Grows above the crop early and shades it in the very weeks the head is being set. Rogue out before it seeds

The first 30 days decide the crop. One hoeing at 20–25 days is usually enough in a rainfed field. Do not use any herbicide sold for maize on sorghum unless its own label names sorghum — it is not enough that the bottle has no atrazine in it. Beour™ (nicosulfuron), Tovate™ and Gengwei 55%SC (mesotrione + atrazine) are all maize products and all three damage a standing jowar crop. Beour™ in particular is sold against Johnson grass, so a jowar field with baru is exactly where a farmer is tempted to reach for it — dig the rootstocks out instead.

Insect Pests

Shoot fly attacks seedlings in the first three weeks and causes dead hearts; early sowing with the first rain is the best defence. Stem borer and midge come later. Aphid appears on the leaf underside in dry spells.

Diseases

Grain mould in a wet harvest, and smut where untreated seed is used. Both are prevented rather than cured: use treated certified seed, and harvest promptly once the grain hardens.

Harvesting

Harvest when the grain is hard and a thumbnail leaves no mark. Cut heads, dry to 12% moisture, then thresh. Fodder sorghum is cut at flowering; cutting earlier than 40 days risks prussic acid poisoning in livestock, especially after drought.