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To designate Sorghum as a "lost" crop, on the face of it, seems like a gross mistake. After all, the plant is Africa's contribution to the world's top crops. It belongs to the elite handful of plants that collectively provide more than 85 percent of all human energy. Globally, it produces approximately 70 million metric tons of grain from about 50 million hectares of land. Today, it is the dietary staple of more than 500 million people in more than 30 countries, let alone in Africa it is an important crop for 300 million people. Only rice, wheat, maize, and potatoes surpass it in feeding the human race.

For all that, however, Sorghum now receives merely a fraction of the attention it warrants and produces merely a fraction of what it could. Not only is it inadequately supported for the world's fifth major crop, it is under-supported considering its vast and untapped potential. Viewed in this light it is indeed "lost."

But this situation may not continue much longer. A growing number of researchers in governmental institutions and companies already see that a new and enlightened Sorghum era is just around the corner. Accorded research support at a level comparable to that devoted worldwide to wheat or rice or maize, Sorghum could contribute a great deal more to food supplies than it does at present. And it would contribute most to those regions and peoples in greatest need. Indeed, if the twentieth century has been the century of wheat, rice, and maize, the twenty-first century could become the one of Sorghum. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in close collaboration with Africa Harvest will make it possible to foster biofortification of this wonderful crop, a crop, which has already proven its big potential for subsistence and commercial farming.

The book presented should help to synthesize the literature and achievements in the research on the biology of Sorghum in the wake of the 21st century. May it be of help for future research and development of Sorghum.