By JOJO DE GUZMAN

CABIAO, Nueva Ecija - Mayor Abundia Garcia said massive planting of sweet sorghum as a biofuel crop in this town won't affect local rice production.

Garcia said the areas planted for sweet sorghum used to be idle lands and that existing rice lands will continue producing palay.

Earlier, Garcia led local officials unveil an ambitious plan to plant sweet sorghum in 7,000 hectares of agricultural lands over the next two years, which, experts said, could provide some 49,000 local farmers and dependents a whopping P1.5 billion in potential income per year.

Garcia said that the municipal government intends to put up a multi-stock distillery for sweet sorghum in the impact zone of the project that can churn out up to 100,000 liters of ethanol daily. She said that a friend, a Malaysian investor, has signified interest to invest up to P500 million for the sweet sorghum project .

Last March, Garcia, municipal planning and development coordinator Jose Hipolito and municipal agriculturist Ruperto Joson Jr. led local officials in harvesting sweet sorghum at a two-hectare portion of the plantation in Barangay Bagong Sikat and the response from local farmers was overwhelming.

Hipolito heads a research and study team for commercial-scale production of renewable energy source like ethanol in line with the national government thrust to tap environmentally friendly source of energy.

The municipal government is targeting to mass-produce sweet sorghum in barangays Entablado, Bagong Silang, San Gregorio, San Antonio, Sta. Isabel and San Carlos .

Garcia said the mass production of the crop could bring back Cabiao to its old glory days when it was the earliest site of sugar plantation in Luzon similar to Cabuyao, Laguna. Local historians say that Cabiao derived its name from the word "Kabyawan" which means grinding mill that used to extract sugar and juice it into molasses,

Dr. Heraldo Layaoen, national program coordinator for sweet sorghum said the biggest sweet sorghum plantation in the country is in Ilocos Norte covering 30,000 hectares.

He said that over the next two years, it is likely that this town will emerge as the capital of sweet sorghum production in Central Luzon "In Cabiao, there is no more social barrier and sweet sorghum is accepted as a primary crop," he said, adding that one hectare of the crop can get between 60 to 65 tons per hectare of stalks which will give 2,700 liters of bioethanol juice.

Layaoen said that in the region, only La Paz in Tarlac and the Science City of Munoz in Nueva Ecija are venturing into sweet sorghum outside of this town.

A technical report on the project said recent studies from various countries showed that sweet sorghum could be the next flash point of fuel alternatives for the 21st Century.