Chinese Ministry and USDA

Gale Buchanan, USDA Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics, and Liu Yanhua, Vice Minister of MOST from the People's Republic of China sign an agreement to cooperate on sweet sorghum and other biofuels research.

The Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology signed an agreement about 10:00 AM CT to collaborate on biofuels research initiatives including sweet sorghum and cellulosic sorghum research.

I caught up with the Conference organizer for some background on the agreement:

“We have an existing cooperation between USDA and the Chinese Ministry for Science and Technology,” said Eileen Herrera, Acting Deputy Director for the Office of International Research Programs at USDA’s Agriculture Research Service (ARS). “We cooperate on several initiatives. Signing this protocol represents formal cooperation in the area of biofuels research.”

This conference and the corresponding agreement is a major step forward for the sorghum industry which is getting long-overdue domestic and international attention. Sorghum is a really viable option for ethanol production because it can be grown on so much of the world's lands (80%!) and because it is a very low water usage crop.