Potential for Renewable Energy Crops

The potential for renewable energy in agriculture and eastern New Mexico’s contributions to biofuel efforts will be topics of interest at the annual field day at New Mexico State University’s Agricultural Science centre at Clovis.

The featured keynote speaker at the event on 18 August will be US Sen. Jeff Bingaman.

"This annual event is designed to help producers become more productive and efficient through education, and to also inform community citizens not familiar with regional agricultural practices of some of the current issues we are facing in today’s challenging agricultural climate," said Mark Marsalis, an agronomist with the Cooperative Extension Service (CES) at the science centre.

At the field day, Dick Auld, who holds an endowed chair at Texas Tech University and is a renowned biodiesel crop breeder, will discuss projects related to water-efficient biodiesel crops. Current projects at the agricultural science centre are investigating production of such oil crops as canola and sunflowers.

Read the rest of the story at The Chronicle of Higher Education