Chapter 3 Phenotyping in Sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) M oench] Are Ashok Kumar, Hari C. Sharma, Rajan Sharma, Michael Blummel, P. Sanjana Reddy, and Belum V.S. Reddy Abstract Sorghum is one of the most important cereal crops grown in the semi-arid tropics (SAT) of Asia, Africa and Americas for its food, feed, fodder and fuel value. Sorghum production is constrained by several biotic and abiotic stresses. Genetic enhancement of sorghum for grain and stover yield, nutritional quality and plant defense traits (abiotic and biotic) which stabilize the crop performance requires thorough knowledge on crop genetic and crop breeding principles. Rapid progress in biotechnology provided powerful and cost-effective molecular/genomic tools to develop desired products in sorghum. However, development of robust and efficient phenotyping methods for traits of interest is critical to make use of these new tools. There is no publication with efficient phenotyping protocols for sorghum research compiled at one place for use by sorghum workers. This book chapter is an attempt to fill that gap and we hope various phenotyping methods discussed hereunder will be useful to sorghum researchers in developing improved products by using them in combination with appropriate breeding/genomic tools. Keywords Sorghum • Yield and quality • Biotic and abiotic stresses • Breeding • Phenotyping • Genotyping • Genomics A.A. Kumar (* ) • H.C. Sharma • R. Sharma • B.V.S. Reddy International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru 502324, Andhra Pradesh, India e-mail: a.ashokkumar@cgiar.org M. Blummel International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), ICRISAT, Patancheru 502324 , Andhra Pradesh , India P.S. Reddy Directorate of Sorghum Research , Rajendranagar 500030 , Andhra Pradesh , India S.K. Panguluri and A.A. Kumar (eds.), Phenotyping for Plant Breeding: 73 Applications of Phenotyping Methods for Crop Improvement, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-8320-5_3, © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013