The Department of Agriculture will conduct planting trials in Capiz to find out the local adaptability of the sweet sorghum, a source of high-octane fuel that can be blended with gasoline to produce bioethanol, the Philippine Information Agency reported

The tests will be conducted at DA's seven-hectare Regional Integrated Agricultural Research Center situated between Panitan and Sigma towns.

Henry Tumlos, DA-RIARC Capiz chief, said the trials for five varieties of sweet sorghum will start during the wet season this season this year, the PIA said.

Although devoted primarily for rootcrops research, the Capiz center, one of the four in Western Visayas, can also be used for research studies involving other crops including sweet sorghum, being considered by the national government as one of the sources of biofuels.

So far, there has been no wide-scale production of any sorghum variety in Capiz, the PIA report added. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had earlier said she would promote sweet sorghum as an alternative feedstock to ethanol manufacturing and extracting processes.

This was after the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics has successfully produced ethanol from sweet sorghum, and tests conducted in Luzon showed the crop can be grown in the Philippines.*

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