DOI: 10.1002/ppp3.70294 ISSN: 2572-2611

Carbon sequestration strategies for climate resilience: Sorghum‐based innovations for sustainable agriculture in dryland regions

Monir Idres Yahya Ahmed, Ahmed Khaled Hassan Mohammedali, Nasrein Mohamed Kamal, Takashi Okamoto, Takayoshi Ishii
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Societal Impact Statement

Climate change is intensifying heat, drought, and food insecurity, threatening dryland farming and carbon management worldwide. We reviewed research on sorghum, a drought‐adapted C4 crop, covering physiology, roots, biomass allocation, soil carbon, bioenergy, breeding, phenotyping, management, and policy. Sorghum can sustain production under water‐limited conditions and may support durable soil‐carbon storage via deep roots, residues, mycorrhizal pathways, and conservation practices, though long‐term validation is needed. These findings underscore sorghum's value for sustainable, climate‐resilient agriculture, and the urgent need for carbon‐aware breeding, farmer‐centered adoption, improved residue management, and credible, affordable, and accessible carbon accounting for farmers and policymakers in drylands globally.

Summary

Sorghum ( Sorghum bicolor L. Moench), a hardy C4 crop, uniquely addresses the dual challenges of rising atmospheric CO 2 and global food security. Its high biomass production, deep roots, and drought tolerance make it ideal for dryland farming. This review explores how sorghum captures atmospheric CO 2 , distributes it within the plant, and adds to soil carbon stores. It emphasizes processes such as photosynthesis efficiency, biomass allocation, and residue breakdown, which are affected by soil microbes and sorghum's residue chemistry. The review also explores the balance between grain yield and carbon storage, highlighting how breeding, genetics, and management can optimize these traits. Advances in breeding, gene editing, and high‐throughput phenotyping provide promising tools to enhance sorghum's carbon sequestration capacity. By identifying traits and management practices that can increase long‐term soil carbon storage while maintaining grain yield, this review highlights sorghum's potential to support climate‐change mitigation and food security.

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