ILOCOS ADOPTS SWEET SORGHUM AS PRIORITY BIOFUEL CROP
BATAC CITY, ILOCOS NORTE, MAY 5, 2008 (STAR) By Rudy A. Fernandez – In line with the government’s biofuel program, the Ilocos Regional Development Council (RDC) has adopted sweet sorghum as a “priority crop.”The RDC, composed of top officials of provinces constituting Ilocandia, made the decision following a series of consultative meetings with the Bio-Power Development Program in Region 1 of the National Economic Development Authority.
Dr. Miriam Pascua, president of the Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU), reported RDC’s decision when interviewed by Mag-Agri Tayo on Channel 4, the government television station, during the First National Sweet Sorghum RD&E Review and Planning Conference held at MMSU recently.
MMSU is a six-campus university in Ilocos Norte whose main campus is in this newly created city.
The conference was sponsored by the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Agricultural Research, MMSU, Commission on Higher Education, Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development, and the India-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Agrid Tropics.
The forum summarized current RD&E (research, development and extension) activities on sweet sorghum in the country for better understanding of its prospects for biofuel, food, feed and forage.
At its recent meeting, the Ilocos RDC adopted sweet sorghum as “a strategic commodity and a priority in generating investment, creating employment, and addressing rural poverty in consonance with the Biofuels Act of 2006.”
Ilocos Norte Gov. Michael Keon committed the provincial government’s support for the national sweet sorghum program during the conference.
Dr. Heraldo Layaoen, MMSU vice president and national team leader of the sweet sorghum program, said the MMSU has produced vinegar, wine (basi), cookies and other snack items, and jaggery (concentrated juice) from sweet sorghum.
The RD&E activities on sweet sorghum are in line with the Biofuels Act of 2006 (Republic Act 9367), which President Arroyo signed on Jan. 12, 2007.
Under the law, five percent ethanol must be blended with gasoline by 2009. The blend will subsequently be increased to 10 percent by 2011.
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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