Sta. Maria, Ilocos Sur – Four farming areas in the Ilocos region have been designated for the pilot planting of sweet sorghum, a crop that will be utilized as base material for ethanol that is needed for biofuel production.

Presidential Assistant for Northern Luzon Ernie Mendoza said the four areas are located in Batac, Ilocos Norte, this town in Ilocos Sur, Rosales, Pangasinan, and in Sto. Tomas, La Union.

He said President Arroyo will soon be going to the Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) in Batac to launch the planting program.

The government’s interest on sweet sorghum production heightened after the passage of the Biofuels Act in Congress which the president signed into law recently, it was learned.

Pilot growing will cover 300 hectares but this will subsequently expand to 1,500 hectares and will go nationwide, Mendoza said.

"There are other crops suitable for biofuel but sweet sorghum is the most convenient and beneficial to the farmers," the presidential assistant who holds a doctorate in rural development, said.

He identified four other crops suited for biofuel as soya beans, ground nut, pigeon pea and jatropha.

He said sweet sorghum can be raised continuously all year round with farmers harvesting the crop three times a year. A farmer would earn a net income of P90,000 a year per hectare, Mendoza claimed.

It was learned that 3,000 liters of ethanol would be realized from a hectare yield of sweet sorghum.

According to Mendoza, MMSU is the accredited seed producer for sweet sorghum which will be distributed to the farmers. The accreditation was made by the International Crop Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).

ICRISAT is a United Nations program based in India and is headed by a Filipino, former Agriculture Secretary William Dar.

Earlier reports said Mrs. Arroyo brought home from India during a state visit there sweet sorghum seeds supplied by ICRISAT.

Mendoza claimed that when sweet sorghum farming goes full blast, it will generate 7,500 jobs and directly benefit 1,500 farmers.

He allayed speculations that other crops may be sidelined by the farmers in favor of sweet sorghum saying the ethanol-producing crop will only be an added farming opportunity for the farmers.

"This crop will be only suitable to salty land areas which are mostly idle and unplantable to the regular crops," he said.