Corn or sorghum?

Farmers in a village in Kenya switched with the help of an international food security organization from growing maize back to growing sorghum (sorghum). The result - their income from each dunam of land increased 10 times

Some time ago I brought here Report on research to develop corn varieties that will adapt to drought conditions.
At the end of the list, I addressed the subject with bewilderment that the researchers continue on the path that the English led when they arrived in East Africa. Until their arrival, the preferred grain in East Africa was sorghum, or as it is known in our regions, Dora, a grain that for ages adapted to the climate conditions and provided growers with food for man and cattle. The English saw sorghum as a poor and simple grain suitable only for animal feed, so they brought corn (which originated in America) and over the years corn took the place of sorghum.

Now my "bewilderment" is being reinforced by Kenyan farmers who abandoned corn and returned to traditional cultivation when they returned sorghum to the fields. A group of journalists visited farmers in the village of Wote (Wote) in eastern Kenya who said that sorghum provides food security for families as well as visiting a sorghum field yields a larger crop and for the crop a better price is obtained than corn.
Sorghum adapts to a wide range of environmental and soil conditions and is today considered a crop that adapts to climate change. Sorghum has inherent resistance to drought conditions, which improves the nutritional security of households in arid regions.

According to Report of a research institute on behalf of the Institute for Agriculture and Food Security (Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) Until 2012, there was food security for only two percent of the families in Vata because the inhabitants of the region barely subsisted on agriculture whose crops were frequently damaged by drought.

Starting in 2012, the sorghum was returned to the fields together with a resistant variety of beans and a resistant variety of peas. Growing beans and peas on the same area creates a positive seed cycle and provides the soil with natural fertilization. The farmers received help and professional guidance and were organized into groups that grew sorghum against control plots of corn, so that they could see for themselves the differences and the feasibility of the change.
At the end of 2013, the farmers chose a sorghum variety known as Seredo that gave the best yield of the sorghum and the bean and pea varieties respectively. In light of the success, additional villages in the region joined the project in 2014.
The farmer's spokesman says that "after estimates and tests, it is clear that sorghum is much more productive and fruitful than corn. In the past, the attitude was that even if corn farming fails, at least there are stalks to feed the cattle, "sorghum gives us food security for families and for domestic animals alike." The speaker goes on to say that "on one dunam, five sacks full of sorghum are collected for one sack of corn".

As part of the changes and organizing into growing groups, there is a trader who comes to the area, which saves the farmers the need to deal with transporting the crop. The traders pay about 25 dollars for a bag of sorghum (which weighs about 40 kg) compared to less than half of this amount for a bag of corn, which means that the financial profit from growing sorghum is 10 times greater than corn.
The farmer's spokesman goes on to say that "studies show that the nutritional value of sorghum is dozens of times greater than that of corn," "if you want to get out of the cycle of poverty and hunger, it is important to stop growing corn that is not suitable for the region. It is important to switch to sorghum cultivation.'

And I will add that, among other things, the English spread the cultivation of eucalyptus as a source of wood. Perhaps now there is a place to reconsider the continuation of the planting of Australian species in East Africa and in general. Maybe you should switch to growing local species.
It is often worthwhile and important to combine progress with tradition, since tradition and in this case plant varieties that have evolved over thousands of years wins over progress.