Former Agriculture Secretary Dr. William Dar said yesterday that with three varieties already identified to produce good yield, the Philippines is prepared to use sweet sorghum as a bioethanol source to counter the increasing fuel prices in the world market.

Dar, now the director general of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) based in India, said that sweet sorghum has a "systematic development" in the Philippines as three out of eight varieties have already been identified to produce excellent yield.

"Where sugar grows, sweet sorghum can grow," Dar said, adding that it can also grow in areas where tobacco, cotton, corn, and rice grow.

Dar said ICRISAT developed sweet sorghum varieties for 12 years and took two years to test the varieties. The testing and adoptation of varieties are being shared by ICRISAT with the Philippines.

Adaptation trials have been conducted in Central Luzon and Ilocos Norte since 2005 in coordination with the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry, and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD) of the Department of Science and Technology (DoST), and the Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) of the Department of Agriculture (DA).

Dar said that aside from its use as bioethanol source, sweet sorghum is also used in India for power generation in distilleries, livestock feed, compost, and as flour.

"Walang sayang (Nothing is wasted). It answers the goal of food security, poverty reduction, and energy. It is also a climate change crop as it does not emit sulfur and is a clean fuel," he said.

Sweet sorghum (sorghum bicolor L. Moench) is a multi-purpose crop yielding food in the form of grain, ethanol from its stem juice, and fodder from its leaves and bagasse. Sweet sorghum thrives under drier and warmer lands.
It can be grown throughout the year with minimum water supply as it requires only one half of the water required to grow maize and around one eighth of the water required to grow sugarcane.

Sweet sorghum is grown in Northern and Central Luzon, Oriental Mindoro, Capiz, Negros, South Cotabato, North Cotabato, Bukidnon, Zamboanga, and General Santos City.