Presented by Michael Blümmel, V. Vadez, N. Seetharama D. V. A. Tonapi, V Bhat, B. V. S. Reddy and C. S. Jones at the Sorghum in the 21st Century Workshop, Cape Town, South Africa, 9 - 12 April 2018

1. Multi-dimensional crop improvement: experiences from
collaborative ILRI-ICRISAT-NARES work on sorghum in India
Michael Blümmela, V. Vadez b, N. Seetharamac D. V. A. Tonapic, V Bhatc , B. V. S. Reddy b and C. S. Jonesa
a ILRI, Feed and Forage Program; B ICRISAT
c National Research Center for Sorghum now Indian Institute for Millet Research
Sorghum in the 21st Century, Cape Town, South Africa 9-12 April 2018
2018 Global Nutrition Symposium, January 2018, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

2. Why pay attention to stover or more generally crop residues: feed
supply-demand scenarios, crop residue fodder markets
 Impact of stover fodder quality on livestock productivity: what
degree of differences matter
 Exploit existing cultivar variations and targeted genetic
enhancement, trade-offs
 Where to go from here
Topics

3. Feed resource supply - demand scenarios in
India
Feed resource Contribution to overall feed resources (%)
Greens from CRP, forests, grazing 8.0
Planted forages 15.1
Crop residues 70.6
Concentrates 6.3
Deficit: feed availability versus feed requirement (%)
Dry matter (i.e. crop residue quantity) -6
Digestible crude protein -61
Total digestible nutrients -50
(NIANP 2012; Blümmel at al. 2014)

4. 0
5 0 0
1 0 0 0
1 5 0 0
2 0 0 0
2 5 0 0
3 0 0 0
3 5 0 0
4 0 0 0
4 5 0 0
A ll C o w s
L o c a l C o w s
C ro s s b re d C o w s
1 0 %
1 0 %
1 0 %
9 0 %
9 0 %
9 0 %
G A P : 2 8 1 7 k g G A P : 8 6 9 k g G A P : 2 3 0 9 k g
AverageMilkYield(kg/cow/year)
Yield differences in milk production between the 10% most
productive farmers and the remaining 90% in India using
comparable dairy genetics (Derived from VDSA-India 2013 and Blümmel et al. 2016b)

5. 5
Commercial Sorghum stover trading
in Hyderabad, India

6. Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Ju Jul Aug Sep Oc Nov
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
Sorghum grain
Sorghum stover
3.4
6.5
Month of trading
IndianRupeeperkg
Yearly mean
2004 to 2005
Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Ju Jul Aug Sep Oc Nov
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
Sorghum stover
Sorghum grain
6.2
10.2
Yearly mean
2008 to 2009
Month of trading
Comparisions of average cost of dry sorghum stover traded in Hyderabad and average of cost of
sorghum grain in Andhra Pradesh 2005 to 2005 and 2008 to 2009
Grain: stover value in sorghum traded in Hyderabad
from 2004-5 and from 2008-9
Sharma et al. 2010

7. Relation between average digestibility and price
of sorghum stover traded from 2004 to 2005
44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55
2.8
3.0
3.2
3.4
3.6
3.8
4.0
4.2
y = -4.9 + 0.17x; R2
= 0.75; P = 0.03
Stover in vitro digestibility (%)
Stoverprice(IR/kgDM)
Premium Stover
“Raichur”
Low Cost Stover
“Local Yellow”
Blümmel and Parthasarathy, 2006

8.  Feed supply – demand scenarios underline key role
of crop residues as feed sources (in most LMC)
 Fodder market surveys show high monetary value,
narrowing crop residue-grain price ratios and
price premiums
 Continued driving factor: more quality fodder
required with shrinking natural
resource basis
Why pay attention to crop residues fodder
improvement at source

9. Ingredients %
Sorghum stover 50
Bran/husks/hulls 18
Oilcakes 18
Molasses 8
Grains 4
Minerals, vitamins, urea 2
Courtesy: Miracle Fodder and Feeds PVT LTD
Impact of variations in sorghum stover fodder
quality on livestock productivity

10. Comparisons of feed blocks based on lower (47%) and higher
(52%) digestible sorghum stover and tested with
commercial dairy buffalo farmer in India
Block Premium Block Low
CP 17.2 % 17.1%
ME (MJ/kg) 8.46 MJ/kg 7.37 MJ/kg
DMI 19.7 kg/d 18.0 kg/d
DMI per kg LW 3.8 % 3.6 %
Milk Potential* 15.5 kg/d 9.9 kg/d
Modified from Anandan et al. (2009a)
* 21 and 14 kg/d in crossbred cattle

11.  “Intuitively” small difference in fodder quality of
stover do matter: additive effect of higher
diet quality and higher intake
 Informed choice of cultivar can have very
substantial effect on livestock
productivity
Impact of variations in stover fodder quality on
livestock productivity

12.  Phenotyping new cultivars
submitted for release testing
for fodder traits
 Phenotyping during crop
improvement for fodder
traits
Exploit existing cultivar variations and
targeted genetic enhancement
 Conventional breeding,
recurrent selection,
hybridization
 Molecular breeding, QTLs,
genetic selection
Exploit variation Targeted enhancement

13. (Blümmel et al. 2010)
Stover fodder trait analysis in new sorghum cultivar
release testing in India 2002 to 2008

14. Staygreen QTL associated sorghum stover digestibility
across 2 years and 2 treatments
B a c k g ro u n d S -3 5s
tg
4
s
tg
1
s
tg
2
s
tg
A
ll
s
tg
3
s
tg
A
s
tg
B
s
tg
F
S
-3
5
4 0 .0
4 2 .5
4 5 .0
4 7 .5
5 0 .0
5 2 .5
Stoverinvitrodigestibility(%)
L S D = 1 .1 8
(Blümmel et al., 2015)

15. Staygreen QTL associated stover digestibility across
2 years and 2 treatments
B a c k g ro u n d R -1 6
s
tg
B
+
3
:5
B
s
tg
1
:3
A
s
tg
B
+
3
:5
A
s
tg
B
:
1
A
s
tg
1
+
4
:9
A
s
tg
4
:4
A
s
tg
4
:4
C
s
tg
1
:3
C
s
tg
b
:1
C
s
tg
4
:
4
B
s
tg
B
+
3
:5
B
s
tg
3
:
2
C
s
tg
3
+
4
:8
A
s
tg
3
:
2
A
s
tg
B
+
4
:6
A
s
tg
B
:1
B
s
tg
1
+
4
:9
B
s
tg
3
+
4
:8
B
s
tg
1
:3
B
s
tg
A
lls
tg
F
R
-1
6
3 0 .0
3 2 .5
3 5 .0
3 7 .5
4 0 .0
4 2 .5
4 5 .0
4 7 .5
5 0 .0
5 2 .5
5 5 .0
Stoverinvitrodigestibility(%)
L S D = 1 .1 2
(Blümmel et al., 2015)

16. (Blümmel et al., 2015)

17. (Blümmel et al., 2015)

18. 18

19. Conclusions
• Proof of concept for multi-dimensional crop improvement
provided for key cereal and legume crops
• Significant livestock nutritional cultivar variations in most crops
(not wheat though) without detriment to primary traits
• Quick and inexpensive impact from exploiting variations
• Targeted genetic enhancement more longer term, more
investment intensive, likely higher impact

20. Outlook
• Translate proof-of-concept/piloting into scaling
• Modify cultivar release criteria, add crop residue traits
• Private sector engagement for example seed bag
branding with stover information (Syngenta)
• Mainstream multi-dimensional crop improvement,
embedding in CRP Phase 2 crop improvement
• Hub-spoke structure with phenotyping capabilities in
South Asia and East and West Africa

21. better lives through livestock
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ILRI thanks all donors and organizations who globally supported its work through their contributions
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