Sorghum ID present in « Indagra », the international agricultural exhibition of Bucharest

Thanks to this important agricultural exhibition that took place from 25 to 29 October, Sorghum ID was able to help Romanian farmers discover – or re-discover – sorghum. Indeed, under communism, the sorghum acreage was close to 100,000 ha, compared to 20,000 ha nowadays, demonstrating the potential of this crop, especially taking into account today’s available varieties. But the current sorghum acreage in Romania can be explained by two factors: insufficient knowledge about the crop, and concerns about the lack of outlets. This is why visitors to the Sorghum ID stand at the Indagra exhibition were very curious, asked for concrete tips, and were happy to receive the available technical documents.

The exhibition also enabled many meetings with industries (in particular cattle feed manufacturers) ready to use more sorghum. Finally, Sorghum ID, in liaison with APPR (Romanian Maize and Sorghum Producers Association) held a conference on the topic “Producing and selling sorghum in Romania”, bringing together many producers and journalists specialised in agriculture. Topics discussed included: a presentation of Sorghum ID and its objectives, a presentation by Yannick Carel (Arvalis) on the agronomy and economy of sorghum in Europe, and finally a conclusion by Dumitru Manole (sorghum producer and retailer of agricultural inputs in south-eastern Romania) with persuasive arguments regarding the potential of sorghum in Romania especially in crop rotation, the technical and economic results of his own farm, and the main commercial outlets for this crop in Romania.