One of the world’s leading companies in agro-industry, Syngenta, and the energy crop company Ceres will work together to support the introduction of sweet sorghum as a source of fermentable sugars at Brazil’s 400 or more ethanol mills.
Sweet sorghum is a hardy crop that can be grown on fallow sugarcane land and processed using the same equipment. Since it grows in just 90 to 120 days, it requires less water and other inputs than sugarcane. Last season, Brazilian mills planted Ceres sweet sorghum on more than 3.000 hectares (7.400 acres). Due in part to increased demand for ethanol and sugarcane shortages, Brazil’s government recently announced in its annual agricultural plan for 2012-2013 that sweet sorghum would be considered a strategic crop.
Under the agreement, Syngenta and Ceres intend to collaborate on small-scale trials as well as larger demonstration-scale field evaluations with mills in this season. Syngenta will provide its agronomy resources to evaluate its portfolio of crop protection products alongside Ceres hybrids, and Ceres will provide both seed and research support.Both companies will coordinate outreach to ethanol mills and develop industry training programs.
