Fort Valley State University News December 8, 2010 Fueling the future: FVSU scientist awarded nearly $1 million from USDA Fort Valley State University is the only 1890 land-grant institution selected to participate in the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) Competitive Grants program at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The university recently received nearly $1 million from the USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture agency to research energy crops for the next five years. "This is the first time ever an FVSU researcher has received a large AFRI grant. There is usually intense competition among the major land-grant institutions for AFRI grants, and this award to FVSU demonstrates the caliber of our research programs," said Govind Kannan, interim dean of the College of Agriculture, Family Sciences and Technology. The research comes during an era when the United States wants to decrease its dependency on other countries for oil. The project is beneficial because advanced biofuels reduce greenhouse gas emission by at least 50 percent, unlike petroleum, which is believed to be a major contributor to global warming, said FVSU professor Bharat Singh, who is spearheading the project. Singh's team will examine six crops grown to produce high levels of environmentally safe biofuels: energy cane, napier grass, sorghum, giant reed, switchgrass and giant miscanthus. The crops have qualities that make them excellent candidates for research said Singh. For instance, sorghum produces large plants and its sugar can be converted into different types of advanced biofuels. The data collected will benefit farmers and agricultural entrepreneurs; and develop the expertise of students and junior faculty working on the project. "This field of bioenergy is emerging. There are very few minorities in this field so this is an opportunity to get firsthand knowledge and experience so they will know how to go about doing research," Singh said. "Also, working on this project will prepare them for jobs in the energy field and train them for their future studies in graduate school." FVSU is among only a handful of prestigious schools awarded the grant in varying amounts. The federal agency received hundreds of applications, but only 13 schools received approval, including Cornell University, University of Georgia, Rice University and Oklahoma State University. The $997,937 grant to the university demonstrates its expertise and qualifications, the agronomist said. "If we want to show we are on the cutting edge of technology, we have to do research to meet the needs of today's problems," Singh said. SANDRA M. PHOENIX Program Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> 404.592.4820 1438 West Peachtree Street NW Suite 200 Atlanta, GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (Lyrasis) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org<http://www.lyrasis.org/> Honor the ancestors, honor the children.