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The Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) is piloting production of biofuel derived from non-grain crops, but has no plans to expand acreage of corn a major raw material for biofuel next year.

It was the first time the ministry has explicitly stated its policy on production of biofuel, whose surging demand has contributed to recent price hikes in the food market.

"We have a principle with regard to biofuel: it should neither be at the cost of foodgrains for people's consumption nor should it compete with grain crops for cultivated land," Yang Jian, director of the ministry's development planning department, told China Daily.

Yang made it clear that his ministry did not support using corn, or any other grain crops, as raw material to produce biofuel.

"There is a growing demand for corn, especially for feeding livestock," he said.

In addition to being used as food, 72 per cent of China's corn yield is used in animal feed; if the crop is used for other purposes, the sector will be affected, he said.

But since biofuel can help raise farmers' income and quench the thirst for cleaner energy, the ministry encourages them to grow sorghum, cassava and other non-grain crops on slopes and patches that are unfit for grain production, he said.

Biofuel is fuel such as ethanol and methane produced from renewable biological resources. In China, corn contributes around three-fourths of the raw material for making ethanol, whose output is estimated at 1.3 million tons this year. Last year, the country used 48 million tons of gasoline.

The country plans to substantially raise the share of ethanol and other cleaner-burning substitutes during the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10), according to sources with the National Development and Reform Commission.

The ministry has designated some acreage in East China's Shandong Province and Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to produce sweet sorghum this year for the making of biofuel, Yang said.

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