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First Posted on Inside Mindanao: August 30, 2007

Gov ’t eyes 700,000 hectares of land,
mostly in Mindanao for jatropha plantation
By Ellen Red

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—The Philippine Government, through the state-owned Philippine National Oil Company-Alternative Fuels Corporation (PNOC-AFC) is eyeing to establish 700,000 hectares of land, mostly in Mindanao for jatropha plantation.

In a statement read during the First Jatropha Mindanao Forum held last August 28, in this city, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said, “I have instructed the PNOC-AFC to look at the possibility of establishing a total of about 700,000 hectares of jatropha plantation specially here in Mindanao.”

A plant which is found in many provinces of the Philippines, jatropha (locally known as tuba-tuba) is 100% substitute for diesel, President Arroyo said.

The President said the establishment of hundreds of thousands of jatropha plantations is one of the ways to shield the Philippines from the adverse effects of imported energy, as well as reduce carbon emission—one of the major causes of global warming.

PNOC-AFC has put up a Jatropha Curcas Model Plantation and Seed Orchard in three of the city ’s barangays, this according to the report of the Philippine Information Agency.

The PNOC-AFC has tapped indigenous communities for this Jatropha Curcas Model Plantation and Seed Orchard in this city. Among these tapped indigenous communities are the Pahiron Council of Elders in barangay Lumbia for 170 hectares using their ancestral domain claim; and Lumbia Tribal Association, also in Lumbia for 100 hectares using their Certificate of Land Ownership Agreement.

In January 2007, President Arroyo signed into law Republic Act 9367, also known as the Biofuels Act of 2006. The law mandates that all liquid fuels for motors and engines sold in the Philippines shall contain locally-sourced biofuels components as follows: 1% biodiesel within 3 months from effectivity of the law and 5% bioethanol within 2 years from effectivity of the law.

Under the Biofuels Act, the Department of Agriculture (DA) has formulated the DA Biofuels Feedstock Program. The main Biofuels Feedstock Program encompasses two sub-programs, the Biodiesel Feedstock Program and the Bioethanol Feedstock Program.

As defined by DA, feedstock is an organic source or biomass used in the production of biofuels. For biodiesel, the two main feedstocks that would initially be employed in its production are coconut and jatropha. On the other hand, the feedstock program for bioethanol would primarily make use of three feedstocks, namely sugarcane, sweet sorghum, and cassava.

According to the DA report, the total potential area for biofuel feedstock production in the Philippines is two million hectares.

During the First Jatropha Mindanao Forum, Cagayan de Oro City mayor Constantino Jaraula aired his apprehension to the jatropha project of the government.

Mayor Jaraula said, “When we shall cover as much of Mindanao with jatropha and cassava; aside from banana, you will have erased our watershed....”

“This is the balance that you have to look into as you go into this exercise (First Jatropha Mindanao Forum), ” the mayor of Cagayan de Oro said.

In a study entitled “How Biofuels Could Starve the Poor” conducted by professors C. Ford Runge and Benjamin Senauer of the University of Minnesota in the United States, the professors argued that the growth of biofuels threatens to divert massive amounts of corn and other food crops into biofuels.

END