ABSTRACT
New breeding technologies continue to become available at an ever-increasing pace, but the basic principles and processes involved in sorghum breeding have remained relatively unchanged. These fundamental practices apply to nearly all modern sorghum improvement programmes, and this chapter will seek to provide an overview of this process and relevant considerations. Since the widespread adoption of hybrid sorghum in the early 1960s, most public and private sorghum breeding programmes have been shaped by the need to conform to a cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) seed production system. This system introduces a complexity to the breeding process that presents unique challenges and, in the end, determines the final form of sorghum germplasm breeders must deliver in order to be successful.
