Sorghum, which used to be one of the grains, is now rarely planted. Does it taste bad?

Sorghum belongs to chestnut among the five cereals "millet, bean, hemp, wheat and rice". It was once the main grain crop in China for a long time. However, with the continuous development of science and technology, the breeding of high-yield varieties of wheat, corn and rice, and the rapid development of chemical fertilizer industry, sorghum has gradually faded out of the dining table of ordinary families.

There are three reasons why few people grow them now:

First, from an economic point of view, the maturity period of sorghum is about 95-160 days. According to the latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics, the yield per unit area of sorghum in China in 2016 is 318kg per mu. Since 1990, the yield per unit area of sorghum in 2015 is the highest, with 391kg per mu. The yield is far lower than that of other crops such as corn (about 700kg for ordinary corn and more than 900kg for high-yield corn).

And corn spring sowing mature period of about 120 days, summer sowing corn about 100 days. Although corn prices are lower than sorghum prices, corn yields and plant management advantages are unmatched by sorghum. So from an economic point of view, it is obviously more affordable to grow other crops than sorghum, and naturally fewer people grow sorghum.

Second, from the point of view of taste, before fertilizer was popularized, when wheat yield was still 50kg per mu, sorghum yield per mu was already more than 100kg, but sorghum was not as delicious as imagined. There was a lot of tannin in sorghum seed skin, which was what was still in many immature fruits, such as green persimmon, which was really bad.

But in an age of scarcity, sorghum's relatively high yield made it a staple food for Chinese families. Now material life is so good, occasionally eat sorghum steamed bread or something feel OK, but every day take sorghum as rice to eat, want to eat something else, no, this is not ordinary uncomfortable, now many older generation of people mention sweet potato noodles sweet potato steamed bread away from the sweet potato can not live in the era, are lamenting how beautiful life is to eat rice and flour every day. Therefore, from the taste point of view, sorghum out of the main grain stage, is also reasonable.

Third, from the perspective of demand, there will be a market only if there is demand. Since eating sorghum all day is not as comfortable as rice and wheat, sorghum can be used as feed or wine. There is also a sorghum that has been bred and has about 20% sugar in its stem, which can also be used as feed. However, China's consumption of sorghum in 2016 is about 8.3 million tons. Compared with wheat and corn, the market demand is very different. From the demand point of view, sorghum market demand will not let sorghum again on the staple grain stage.

The above comes from science and agriculture.