ABSTRACT
Seeds for a sorghum agroecosystem on earth were sown some 4000 years ago, by the Neolithic humans that inhabited Eastern African highlands. Ethiopians were earliest to domesticate sorghum landraces and use it as staple food. Botanical surveys have indicated that, greatest genetic diversity for genus Sorghum is found in the region comprising Nile belt of Southern Egypt, parts of Chad, Sudan and Ethiopian Highlands. Genetic separation of S. bicolor, the cultivated species, is said to have taken place in these areas during early Neolithic age. Domesticated sorghum spread from Ethiopia to other locations in East Africa, then to South and West Africa. Domesticated sorghum occurred in West Africa around 3000-2000 B.C. (Table 1). West African locations in the upper reaches of river Niger could be considered as yet another or secondary center of origin for sorghum.
