Marketing of Sorghum in India

The marketing process of sorghum in India is generally smooth and constraint-free as it is relatively easy to market it as a food grain. At times, linked or tied output and credit markets lead to distress sale by small and marginal farmers. The existing marketing arrangements may not be favourable for the industries that use sorghum and millet. These industries may resort to bypassing the regular channels to obtain sorghum and millet more easily for dual purpose: for food and for industrial applications (Marsland and Rao 1999). With the gradual commercialisation of Indian agriculture and its integration with the world markets coupled with the increasing demand for sorghum, marketing of sorghum, an erstwhile subsistence crop, assumes great importance.

Although significant quantity of sorghum is traded, markets are still not well developed. There is a need to popularise value-added and ready-to-use sorghum food products. It is important that there is a collaboration with different industries and a general understanding of the behaviour of market players. New channels for the promotion of alternate uses of sorghum like in syrup, industrial products, jaggery from sweet sorghum, brewing of potable alcohol, and fuel alcohol from sweet stalks need to be explored.

Marketing of sorghum grain fits no ordinary marketing model. Traditionally, only 8−9 per cent of the crop carries over to the next marketing year. There are two primary reasons for this low carry-over. First, sorghum as a commodity moves in and out of feeding channels as a replacement for maize in most markets due to its lower price. Second, the traditional market for sorghum is a replacement of starch market. Starch is marketed as binders for making wallboard and for ethanol production. One of the fastest growing areas of utilization of sorghum is the production of ethanol, which now uses approximately 12 per cent of the total sorghum grain production in the country.