Sweet super sorghum – yield data for the ICRISAT hybrid

Its plant breeding experiments with sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) resulted in a cultivar that is relatively drought tolerant, needs comparatively small amounts of water and yields high amounts of easily extractable sugar that can be used as a feedstock for ethanol production:

…one hectare planted with sweet sorghum will yield 95-125 tons after a planting season of 100-115 days, compared to sugar cane’s 65-90 tons per hectare with a longer crop season of 300-330 days.

…sweet sorghum adapts well to drought and will not compete much for fresh water, needing only about 175 cubic meters per crop, which is just one-fourth of sugarcane’s 700 cubic meters water need per crop.

…at an extraction and processing rate similar to that of sugar cane and an average yield of 110 tons/hectare, using first generation bioconversion technologies, an ethanol yield of around 10,000 liters/hectare (1070 gallons/acre) can be expected.

Biopact