Molecular Pathogens, 2025, Vol.16, No.3, 100-110 http://microbescipublisher.com/index.php/mp 100 Feature Review Open Access Effect of Sorghum Crop Rotation Patterns on Reducing Pest and Disease Pressure Yeping Han 1 , Weichang Wu 2 1 Institute of Life Science, Jiyang College of Zhejiang A&F University, Zhuji, 311800, Zhejiang, China 2 Biotechnology Research Center, Cuixi Academy of Biotechnology, Zhuji, 311800, China Corresponding email: yeping.han@jicat.org Molecular Pathogens, 2025, Vol.16, No.3 doi: 10.5376/mp.2025.16.0012 Received: 21 Mar., 2025 Accepted: 28 Apr., 2025 Published: 25 May, 2025 Copyright © 2025 Han and Wu, This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Preferred citation for this article: Han Y.P., and Wu W.C., 2025, Effect of sorghum crop rotation patterns on reducing pest and disease pressure, Molecular Pathogens, 16(3): 100-110 (doi: 10.5376/mp.2025.16.0012) Abstract Sorghum bicolor plays a vital role in global agricultural production, yet continuous monocropping often leads to severe pest and disease outbreaks, resulting in yield decline. Crop rotation has proven to be an effective agronomic practice that disrupts pest and pathogen life cycles, enhances soil microbial communities, and improves crop resilience. This study systematically reviews the physiological resistance traits of sorghum, its ecological interactions with pests and diseases, and highlights the role of rotation in regulating soil microbiota, alleviating replanting diseases, and controlling both belowground and aboveground pests. Through comparisons of typical rotation models and regional field cases, the study identifies suitable strategies for different ecological zones. Furthermore, it proposes region-specific optimization suggestions and explores the integration of digital agriculture with precision management. The findings demonstrate that sorghum-based crop rotation not only supports the development of healthy agroecosystems but also serves as a key pathway for promoting green and sustainable agriculture. Keywords Sorghum rotation; Pest and disease control; Soil micro-ecology; Sustainable agriculture; Regional cropping systems 1 Introduction Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) is an important food and feed crop, and plays a pivotal role in ensuring food security and the brewing industry. Due to its drought tolerance and low water demand, sorghum is widely grown in arid and semi-arid areas (Cao et al., 2024). However, sorghum yield and quality are often threatened by pests and diseases. In recent years, with the introduction of green agriculture and sustainable development concepts, crop rotation has regained attention as a traditional and efficient agronomic measure (Bowles et al., 2020). Studies have shown that a reasonable rotation system can help improve soil health, increase crop yields and reduce dependence on chemical pesticides (Sun et al., 2024). Especially for crops such as sorghum that are susceptible to soil-borne diseases, crop rotation is seen as an important way to alleviate continuous cropping obstacles and achieve increased yields (Zhou et al., 2023). The pests and diseases faced in sorghum production are characterized by a wide variety, long cycle, and strong persistence. Common sorghum diseases include anthracnose, leaf spot, stem base rot, ear rot, etc. Many pathogens can survive in the soil for many years and are prone to outbreaks once sorghum is continuously planted (Little et al., 2023). For example, sorghum anthracnose is severely prevalent in warm and humid environments, which can lead to a 70% reduction in yield (Chen et al., 2024). Another example is root rot caused by Fusarium moniliforme or Rhizoctonia solani, which often worsens year by year when sorghum is continuously planted in the same field, forming a "repeated crop disease" phenomenon (Zhou et al., 2023). In terms of pests, underground pests in the sorghum seedling stage (such as grubs, wireworms, etc.) and aphids, armyworms, and borers in the later growth stages can cause economic losses (Okosun et al., 2021). The continuous threat of pests and diseases requires long-term and effective management strategies for sorghum production. Integrated pest management (IPM) emphasizes agricultural prevention and control, and crop rotation is one of the highly recommended measures in IPM (Khan et al., 2016). Practice has shown that by introducing a reasonable rotation of sorghum with other crops in the planting system, the risk of pests and diseases can be effectively reduced, and pesticide input can be reduced (Schlegel et al., 2017; Bowles et al., 2020). Systematically studying the mechanism and application effect of
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