|
By Conrad M. Cariño Senior
Desk Editor
At least 70 million liters of
additive from coconut for diesel fuel will be needed to comply with
the Biofuels Act, which requires a 1-percent biofuel blend for
diesel and goes into operation in 2009.
The 70-million-liter estimate,
taken from studies conducted by the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA),
is based on the country’s transport-industry consumption of 7
billion liters of diesel per year.
For coconut farmers, the bonanza
presented by the demand for biofuel from coconut cannot be ignored.
The same goes for farmers who are seeking better buying prices and
deals for their produce.
More tracts of idle land can be
developed for planting biofuel crops, which can potentially employ
up to hundreds of thousands or even millions of workers.
Outside of the 10 million
hectares of land now devoted to agriculture are four million
hectares of idle public land that can be planted with various crops,
including biofuel crops.
The planting materials for
various biofuel crops—like corn, cassava and jatropha—can be
sourced from the government or commercially, with no need to import.
So, the Philippines conserves its US dollars.
Great investor interest
And since the enactment of the
Biofuels Act, domestic and foreign investors have shown great
interest in growing biofuel crops in the country.
The Department of Agriculture has
been approached by 15 companies interested in producing biofuel
feedstock here. Their projects will require 725,300 hectares of
land. Their investment will come to a total of P34.08 billion.
These investments would involve a
total of P19.185 billion on the agricultural side and P14.9 billion
on the plant or infrastructure side, Agriculture Secretary Arthur
Yap said.
“I will bring in more
investments [for biofuel production] from America,” Yap said. He
is scheduled to make an official trip to the US to promote trade and
investment for Philippine agriculture.
Yap said among the crops being
pushed by the Agriculture department for biofuel production are:
sugarcane; cassava; sweet sorghum; and coconut. Not on the
Agriculture department’s list is jatropha, which farmer leaders
interviewed by The Manila Times described as “not friendly” or
“toxic” to the soil.
The farmers have other concerns.
Some said they were worried about turning into paid workers instead
of landowners-partners of the corporations that are going into
biofuel production.
Food security
While there has been much
interest in biofuel production, because of its promise of great
wealth and its potentially large contribution to the Philippine
economy, one of the great concerns raised against it is the
potential threat to food security. This is a very serious issue
because the country is not yet self sufficient in rice, which makes
importing the cereal necessary.
Yap, however, gave the assurance
that the Agriculture department’s thrust for growing biofuel crops
will not compromise the country’s food security because the
country has enough land for planting other crops.
He explained that not all of the
four million hectares of public land that can be developed for
agricultural use will be allocated to biofuel crops. There are also
export markets for our other agricultural produce and these must be
served and make handsome profits from.
However, given the fact that rice
farmers earn about P20,000 to P40,000 per hectare per cropping
season, the temptation to shift to biofuel crops that can guarantee
much higher incomes cannot be ignored.
And as to how the continuing
government subsidies to rice and corn farmers will prevent shifting
cultivation to more profitable biofuel crops remains to be seen. The
government projects the country, with its ongoing grains
productivity programs, will be self sufficient in rice by 2009.
Biofuel gold mine
Whether the country’s food
security will be compromised or not by the large-scale production of
biofuels, one thing is sure: raising biofuel crops can be a gold
mine for the country.
In his book Coconut, The
Philippines’ Money Tree, Dr. Renato Labadan, one of the most
prominent scientific minds in the country, writes that “the era of
‘green gold’ is now at hand.”
He refers to “green gold” as
the potential that can be gained from planting biofuel crops.
“This time, the fertile lands
of Asia will be a major source of this renewable alternative
fuel,” Labadan said in his book, adding that “On coconut, the
Philippines is ahead of most coconut-growing countries because it
has the technology in place and currently produces approximately 115
million liters [of coconut oil] per year.”
Fortunately, the PCA is starting
this year an ambitious coconut planting project that targets the
planting of 16 million new trees nationwide, and encouraging the use
of common table salt to increase coconut yields from present trees
by as much as 20 percent.
Prominent people in the local
biotechnology community also see a potential for biofuel production
outside of the traditional crops like coconut, sugarcane, sweet
sorghum and cassava.
Two such plants are the malunggay
(scientific name: moringa oleifera) and the sago (also known as
metroxylon sagu).
On malunggay, the local
biotechnology community is abuzz that the oil extracted from its
seeds can be used for biofuel. The wonder of malunggay is it is a
very sturdy plant and can thrive along slopes where traditional
crops like corn and rice cannot be planted.
On sago, an article published in
the November to December 2007 issue of Biolife Magazine (published
by the Agriculture department), revealed that the Department of
Science and Technology already gave a P23-million grant to the
University of the Philippines’ Mindanao Sago project, which among
others, will develop the right laboratory technology to produce
ethanol from the humble plant.
Sago palms are actually abundant
in Mindanao and can grow anywhere, including in dry lands and near
swamp areas.
“This discovery is again a
major breakthrough in our agricultural sector,” the article
concluded.
With the agriculture sector
having the potential to employ one to two persons per hectare, the
planting of biofuel crops from traditional and newly-discovered
crops for alternative fuel might just be one of the keys to
alleviating or erasing poverty in the country.
|
