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By Conrad M. Carino, Senior
Desk Editor
Rice farmers get a subsidy from
the government. But if planting their land to biofuel crops will
give them very much more than their per-season income of P20,000 to
P40,000 per hectare, why should we expect them to keep being bound
to rice?
The potential threat of biofuel
production to the country’s food security is explained by Johanne
Edward Labay, the chairman of the technical committee of the
Farmer’s Sectoral Council, a consultative body of farmer leaders
under the National Anti-Poverty Commission.
Labay said it would be much
better to consider importation of biofuel stock if the production of
biofuel crops will affect the supply of food, or push up the prices
of food crops.
“Let us put food first [as
priority]. That is the reason why we have to be selective in the
choice of biofuel crops to be grown,” Labay, who is a chemical
engineer, said.
And instead of planting corn for
biofuel—which woulod drive up the price of corn for human and
animal feed—experts would rather recommend sweet sorghum, which
requires less water, is more sturdy compared to corn and can
withstand water logging [excess water buildup that makes it hard for
plants to take up oxygen].
The planting trials of sweet
sorghum in the Philippines has so far been successful, and the
International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics,
which is headed by a Filipino, William Dar, is willing to help the
country propagate local sorghum planting and assist in putting up a
distillery that would extract biofuels from that crop.
More equitable sharing
Raising biofuel crops can give
farmers an alternative market for their produce, which will help
them fetch better prices and have a more stable buyer or business
partner.
However, farmers can also end up
just being paid workers. Turning into a paid worker, and lose the
dignity of a farmer with his piece of land, is one of the fears
farmers articulated to The Times.
“If we pay them daily for their
[farmers] working in a plantation, that’s just like feeding them
for a day,” Labay said.
Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap,
however, gave the assurance that that farmers will get a fair share
in major biofuel crop production projects. He added that farmers or
farmer organizations will be allowed to deal directly with companies
interested in biofuels production.
“We will help them [farmers]
negotiate [with companies],” Yap said.
Processing gas emissions
Scientists in the European Union
and the United States have also warned against the food security
threat of biofuels production—in addition to their findings that
the processing of biofuels causes gas emissions almost as harmful of
the environment as the diesel fuels themselves. 
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