The US Agriculture and Energy departments announced the funding this week corresponds to an effort to highlight the potential for renewable energy to spur economic development in rural areas.
The grant recipients are as follows:
- University of Georgia, Athens, $1.2m for creation of genomic tools to evaluate Miscanthus, a genus of perennial grasses that looks promising as a cellulosic biofuel crop; and, $705,000 to identify molecular markers in alfalfa that indicate improved yield and quality for biofuel;
- Department of Agriculture Research Station, Lincoln, Nebraska, $1.2m,