GOTCHA, Published in The Philippine Star, Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Conservationists should be the first to promote the planting and use of oilseeds for biofuel. But they’re not. In an ironic twist, earth activists in Asia, Europe and America are even urging caution against the alternative to dirty crude oil. This is because of twin trends. One, too much land — 25 million hectares, by latest UN estimates — once devoted to food suddenly have been converted to fuel crops. Food prices thus have risen all over by as much as 75% since 2005. Two, to cash in on the biofuel boom, landless tillers and even big companies, as in Malaysia, have been encroaching on rainforests to cultivate oilseeds. Their biofuel end-products may spell less vehicle fumes, but the denudation hastens climate change.
Happily the state-owned PNOC-Alternative Fuel Corp. foresaw the food-versus-fuel dilemma. From AFC’s birth in June 2006, chairman Rene Velasco focused on inedible but oil-laden jatropha — and only in idle lands or denuded hills. “We do not compete for land use with producers of rice, corn, fruits, veggies and livestock,” he beams. “Food and fuel security can go hand in hand.” Jatropha, locally called tuba-tuba nut found on hillsides or river banks, is used only as purgative. The tree grows on any terrain and requires only seasonal rains, not expensive, sophisticated irrigation. The challenge for AFC is not in enticing farmers to switch to the fuel nut, but in teaching them what to do with vacant lands for extra cash.
Arable but idle lands abound in the Philippines. Quoting an Asian Development Bank study, AFC president Peter Anthony Abaya laments that six million hectares are unfarmed. “Drive up from Tarlac to Isabela and you’ll see what I mean,” he says of the route through both flatlands and rolling hills. The landowners lack money to invest or are preoccupied with unsuitable crops or are absentees. Mindanao has more such areas, Velasco says, so these might as well be used for substitute diesel. The AFC recently surveyed about 700,000 hectares around Cagayan de Oro City as suitable for jatropha.
Another 15 million hectares, half of the Philippine territory, are denuded forests. Abaya notes that since jatropha can grow on slopes and needs low maintenance, it can be used to reforest mountains. Upon maturity in three to four years, the jatropha tree will bear nuts for the next five decades. So who would want to cut it down when its nuts can now be sold for cash by the industrious harvester. India, five years ahead of the world in jatropha research and mass production, at first experimented it on abandoned lowlands that are usually flooded during the monsoon season. Last year the country tested pure jatropha oil on train locomotives, with encouraging results.
The selling point for planting jatropha is that there’s a huge market for it. The Philippines passed a Biofuels Act in April that requires 1% blend of biodiesel in all filling stations, to rise to 2% in 2009 and higher thereafter. (For gasoline, there should be 5% blend by 2008.) The law would reduce vehicle emissions and imports of crude oil. But biodiesel processors are finding it harder these days to get feedstock from the usual coconut planters. With copra fetching $1,000 per metric ton, planters would rather export. Enter the lowly tuba-tuba. Abaya recounts that Chemrez, the biggest biodiesel maker, successfully tested jatropha as substitute for coco methyl ester in cars. And so the AFC in early 2008 will put up its first jatropha seed nursery and oil extraction complex right where the biodiesel refineries are: in coconut-rich Quezon province. Gov. Rafael Nantes reportedly is aggregating about 100,000 unused hectares for the pilot project.
The world mart can be promising too for jatropha investors. Europe recently enforced 30% biodiesel blend (B30) on vehicles that make frequent stops and therefore expel more fumes, like buses and garbage trucks. Some US states have set up incentives for factories to use 100% biodiesel (B100). For all other vehicles, Europe is planning a steady rise in biodiesel blend from the present 5% to 10% by 2020. The US intends to impose B8 in five years. China reportedly will enact its own biofuels law that will force B10 by 2012. Japan and Korea want 8% blends by next year. Thailand already has imposed B5. The problem is that these countries depend on costly sources of biofuels that are also vegetable oils or cosmetics bases: rapeseed, palm oil, sunflower, soy, and linseed. Mass-producing jatropha in idle lands and denuded mountains in Philippines and Indonesia may be their only cheaper choice. India may not be able to export to Europe or America because of its plan to have B20 in all vehicles in ten years.
For more info, visit www.pnoc-afc.com.ph. A central repository of all information on jatropha also will be put up soon on the Internet.
