Green Sugarcane Accounting – What About Green Sweet Sorghum?


In November 2016, out of the press came a book I edited, UPLB Professor Teodoro "Ted" Mendoza's Green Sugarcane Accounting, with the long subtitle, "A Pioneering Work In Accounting For Energy Use And Carbon Footprint For An Energy-Efficient And Climate Change-Compliant Sugarcane Production." If you don't know Ted, the "About The Author" says of him:

He is a member of the Philippine American Academy of Scientists and Engineers (since May 2011). He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Philippine Employer Labor Social Partnership Inc (PELSPI), as well as the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) representing the academic community in recognition of his incisive analyses of food security issues, rice production systems and climate change adaptive farming.

In the "Editor's Introduction," this was my last paragraph:

This book is for consciousness-raising as well as reality-assessing inside the sugarcane industry, and outside. Much of it the results of research, it should completely revolutionize the way the Philippines looks at how the sugarcane industry can do itself justice and at the same time largely contribute to climate change adaptation.

I was happy editing and producing that book, up to the pdf file.

Today, 3 years and 3 months later, I am thinking of another and sweeter thing: Sorghum bicolor, the botanical name of sweet sorghum. I first became acquainted with this crop in 2007; I wrote in my blog iCRiSAT Watch, “Sugar Is Sweet. Sweet Sorghum Is Sweeter[1].” According to now-retired MMSU professor and scientist pioneer sorghum grower Heraldo Layaoen, sugarcane has 14% sugar content while sweet sorghum has 23%[2]. (image above from The Better India[3])

Not only sweeter than sugar, but the yield of sweet sorghum is higher in the Philippines than in India, its source country, being introduced to the Philippines by then-Director General William Dar of International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, based in India (who is now PH Secretary of Agriculture). This imported crop loves it more in the Philippines than where it came from!

Comparing now: According to Ted, sugarcane yields 60-65 tons/ha. At 14% sweetness, 60 tons is 8.4 tons of sugar. According to trial plantings of Mariano Marcos State University, MMSU, in Batac, Ilocos Norte, sweet sorghum yields 40-45 tons/ha. At 23% sweetness, 40 tons is 9.2 tons of sugar, higher than sugarcane. Not only that. In 1 year, with sugarcane you harvest once, while with sweet sorghum you harvest twice.

So, sweet sorghum is my sweet crop twice valuable!

Now I ask: Why are we not planting sweet sorghum?

There is another consideration: biofuel. Let me quote myself from 13 years ago – “The Inconvenient Truth, It’s Origin Is Western[4]”:

Sugarcane ethanol is the Brazilians’ choice, corn ethanol is the Yankees’ choice. Sweet sorghum ethanol has lower sulphur and higher octane and is cheaper to produce than sugarcane ethanol (Belum VS Reddy et al 2006, Sweet Sorghum, ICRISAT brochure), as well as is cheaper than corn ethanol[5]).

So, sweet sorghum is my smart climate crop thrice over!@517





[1] https://icrisatwatch.blogspot.com/2007/02/sugar-is-sweet.html
[2] https://icrisatwatch.blogspot.com/2007/10/seeds-for-my-sweet.html
[4] https://icrisatwatch.blogspot.com/2007/02/inconvenient-truth.html

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