Exploiting the Nutritional Profile and Consumer Behavior on Choice and Utilization of Selected Sorghum Varieties in Western Kenya

In many arid and semi-arid tropics areas of the world especially in sub Saharan Africa, sorghum is a staple food grain mainly due to its drought tolerance and its good yield of production. Therefore, it has great potential to insure food security as well as curbing protein energy malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies. Current research focused on variation in proximate composition and mineral content (calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, copper, iron, manganese and zinc) as well as consumer views on utilization and value chains of seven sorghum cultivars from the western regions of Kenya. Results showed that there were significant differences among the sorghum cultivars in crude protein values. Mixed tannin (E117) and low tannin cultivars (E97-1) had higher amount of crude protein value of 8.54 and 8.07 respectively while crude protein values for high tannin cultivars (N68-1 and N57) were significantly lower than for no-and low-tannin varieties (Pless than 0.05). Mixed results were obtained for both fibre, carbohydrates, ash and fat content for all the sorghum varieties analyzed irrespective of the tannin content. Calcium and phosphorus values among the seven cultivars were not significantly different (P