Sweet sorghum syrup R&D in India

Sweet sorghum (SS) is one of the varieties of sorghum having stalks with high sugar content and is grown primarily for forage, silage and syrup production. SS syrup is a high antioxidant food material produced by concentrating its sugary juice. SS has been mostly used in India for ethanol production, but demand for its syrup is growing. This article discusses R&D on SS syrup in India and highlights the challenges that need to be overcome to meet the growing demand. The challenges in improving crop productivity and syrup processing are also outlined. A simple economic analysis of small-scale SS syrup plant shows that producing syrup is economical both for farmers and syrup producing units.