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Mon., December 13, 2010 3:14pm (EST)

Fort Valley Receives Bio Fuel Grant
By Courtney Ward
Updated: 1 year ago

ATLANTA  —  
Fort Valley State University is one of 13 to receive a research grant from the USDA (Image courtesy notduck)
Fort Valley State University is one of 13 to receive a research grant from the USDA (Image courtesy notduck)
Fort Valley State University got a $1 million bio fuel research grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The five-year grant will look at six crops including a type of sugar cane and several grass varieties.

Bharat Singh is leading the bio-fuel project at Fort Valley. He says he wants to revitalize the rural economy.

“We have identified crops which can be used to produce bio fuels and the amount of earning which farmers will get out of that will revitalize the economy. Because that’s one of the things the USDA is looking for. If you go to a rural area, they are dying. So farmers can get crops where they can make more money.”

Singh hopes the research will bring money into poor rural areas. Farmers can profit off of these crops because they thrive on less favorable farm land.

Fort Valley is one of 13 states nationally to receive a grant from the USDA.