MANILA, Philippines — The holding of the 1st Philippine International BioEnergy Conference at the Manila Hotel comes on the heels of the $1.78 billion investment of China in Nigeria to produce bioethanol using sweet sorghum as feedstock.

Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala delivered the welcome remarks during the two-day conference, which was convened to attract more local and foreign investors in plunking in their money for the production of bioethanol.

Alcala noted the growing market for ethanol worldwide and stressed that the government is encouraging the wider use of renewable energy and the Department of Agriculture (DA) is deeply involved in finding areas for the massive cultivation of feedstock like sugar and sweet sorghum.

Marriz Agbon, president of the Philippine Agricultural Development and Commercial Corp., tackled the investment opportunities for biofuels and biomass in the afternoon session and urged local foreign investors to see the opportunities in the long haul.

He said the Philippine government, through the National Convergence Initiative (NCI) of the Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), is finding land appropriate for the mass cultivation of sweet sorghum, sugarcane and other bioethanol feedstock.

Experts have said that for sugarcane to be a major feedstock for ethanol, the best option is to use genetically-modified (GM) sugarcane like the Honeywell strain developed by the University of Queensland in Australia.

This particular variety yields 50 percent more ethanol than traditional varieties but the existing ban on GM sugarcane in Negros Occidental has stymied efforts to introduce genetically-engineered crop to the expanding plantation areas in the island.

Dr. William Dar, a former DA secretary but now the director-general of the India-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, had long championed the use of sweet sorghum as feedstock for bioethanol and no less than 18 varieties of the crop had been tested in Northern Luzon to show their viability as feedstock.