Field Crop 2025, Vol.8, No.1, 1-10 http://cropscipublisher.com/index.php/fc 3 2.3 Historical impact on sorghum yield and quality When it comes to increasing sorghum yields, we really have to give credit to traditional breeding. Especially after the advent of hybrid sorghum in the 1950s, the changes were particularly obvious-in those dry lands that depend on the weather for food, the yield has been rising (Assefa and Staggenborg, 2010). Interestingly, the average annual yield has increased by 50 kilograms in 52 years, and hybrid technology and nitrogen fertilizer application have contributed to this. However, the yield in irrigated areas has not changed much, and it seems that breeding is still a matter of "looking at the food and eating it". The Guinea hybrids recently developed in West Africa are quite interesting. They perform particularly well on barren land and can yield 20% to 80% more than local varieties (Kante et al., 2019). This is good news for local small farmers. After all, food security is more important than anything else (Rattunde et al., 2013). 3 Innovation in Hybrid Breeding Techniques 3.1 Molecular markers and genomic selection Sorghum breeding is very different now, thanks to new technologies such as molecular markers and genomic selection. It used to take many years to breed a new variety, but now with marker-assisted selection (MAS), the time can be shortened (Baloch et al., 2023). As you can see from Figure 2, these genetic markers are like GPS for breeding, making the whole process much more accurate. In particular, genomic selection is a great trick-you don't have to wait for the crop to grow up, just looking at its DNA can predict whether it will grow well in the future (Wang and Zhang, 2024). For example, some people use this method to predict the biomass of sorghum, and the results are quite accurate, so that they can decide which seedlings are worth focusing on earlier (Oliveira et al., 2018). What's more amazing is that now even the performance of hybrid offspring can be predicted in advance, which makes breeding hybrids much easier (Maulana et al., 2023). But then again, these high-tech technologies are not omnipotent, and the key lies in how to use them well. Figure 2 Important stages of marker-assisted selection (MAS) (Adopted from Baloch et al., 2023) 3.2 Genetic engineering for trait improvement The application of genetic engineering in sorghum breeding is actually quite interesting. Although it started a little slower than other crops, there have been many breakthroughs in recent years. For example, scientists can now directly "tamper" with the genome of sorghum, and it is not a problem to enhance stress resistance or increase yield. However, the most practical progress is in gene positioning. Through QTL analysis (Ordonio et al., 2016), researchers have locked the location of many key genes, such as those that control yield, determine flowering time,
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