**1. Introduction**

Sorghum (*Sorghum bicolor*) is the main food crop for people living in marginal areas. They are faced with a number of production challenges including; drought, insect pests, diseases, soil fertility and weeds such as striga. Of recent, drought has been the major production challenge limiting sorghum production in Uganda by preventing improved cultivars from expressing their full genetic potential. Three mechanisms namely; drought escape, drought avoidance and drought tolerance are involved in drought resistance. Functional drought resistance categories are based on unique morphological, physiological and biochemical traits working together with genetic factors determined under growth chamber/controlled screening. Nevertheless, morphological and physiological characters show different types of inheritance pattern (i.e., monogenic and polygenic) and different gene actions (additive and non-additive). This implies that the heritability of drought resistance from different genotypes is not consistent so cannot be relied on. The breeding procedure commonly practiced for handling segregating generations affects the rate of genetic progress that can be made under stress that is, yield. Therefore drought resistance is best selected using secondary traits which depict the interaction between water stress, weather variables and the plant [1]**.** For example, the stay green color is a secondary trait resulting from biochemical adaptation to water stress leading to a change in chlorophyll content. There are genotypes expressing various degrees of stay green traits identified from screening experiments [2–5]. For that reason, a large amount of genetic variability has been reported among sorghum germplasm for their reaction to drought stress necessary for setting a breeding scheme. Therefore innovative breeding as an aspect of forward-looking approach is critical while exploiting wide genetic variation of relevant plant characteristics with farmers who support the plant breeding industry. The approach is inspired by [6, 7], who have described steps and methodologies involved in setting priorities in the breeding program/breeding scheme. They argue that the views of farmers need to be considered to come with a deeper understanding about how yield and quality can be increased within the local production system and its specific risk management strategies. Therefore, incorporated resistance to drought must improve positively agronomic characteristics as well as the quantity and quality of harvested products. To address the availability of suitable varieties in the long term, the sorghum improvement program in Uganda has considered the following integrated approaches, in line with the early stages of product profile development under the dry lowland agroecology. Research objective 1: Participatory exploration of sorghum breeding targets. Research objective 2: Identification of genotypes with broad adaptation. Research objective 3: Profile elite germplasm on the basis of phytochemical defense compounds to exploit major factors of the evolution of the crop. Research objective 4: To test pollen fertility restoration of selected parents in cytoplasmic male sterile (CMS) background, to exploit heterosis for productivity and resistance to stresses in the derived lines and populations.
