Short answers, pulled from the story.
Sorghum was domesticated more than 5,000 years ago in Eastern Sudan, in the area of the Rivers Atbara and Gash. The first domesticated form, the bicolor subspecies, has been found at an archaeological site near Kassala dating from 3500 to 3000 BCE.
Sorghum is the fifth-most important cereal crop in the world, ranked behind rice, wheat, maize, and barley. World production in 2023 reached 57 million tonnes, led by the United States.
Sweet sorghum refers to tall, high-sugar varieties of sorghum whose stalks are crushed to extract a molasses-like juice. That juice is sold as syrup or used as a feedstock for fuel ethanol production, with an energy ratio similar to that of sugarcane.
Sorghum does not contain gluten, making it suitable for gluten-free diets. The grain can be ground into flour and used to make flatbreads, porridge, and couscous, or popped in hot oil to make a small popcorn.
China imposed retaliatory tariffs on American sorghum in April 2018 as part of a trade war, halting imports that had reached roughly one billion dollars per year since 2013. By 2020 the tariffs were waived, but China later shifted to buying sorghum from other countries.
Sorghum can tolerate high temperatures, high altitude, and toxic soils, and can recover growth after periods of drought. It grows across a wide pH range of 5.0 to 8.5 and requires less nitrogen fertilizer than maize, making it well suited to arid and semi-arid regions.