DA tags 725,000 hectares of land for growing biofuel feedstock crops

The Department of Agriculture (DA) has identified 725,000 hectares of land that can be planted with crops used as feedstock for biofuels production.

This is in line with government’s plan to allocate at least two million hectares of idle land for agribusiness development by 2010.

The DA Biofuels Feedstock Group reported that of the total area identified for the biofuels project, some 226,300 hectares are in the North Luzon Agribusiness Quadrangle (NLAQ); 20,000 hectares in the Luzon Urban Beltway, 15,000 hectares in Central Philippines; and 464,000 hectares in Agribusiness Mindanao.

The DA said the areas are suitable for planting with cassava, oil palm, coconut, sugarcane, jatropha, and other crops used as feedstock for projects to be set up by private investors aiming to cash in on the biofuels boom in the global market.

Investors are planning to set up plants in the Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley, Western Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula, Northern and Central Mindanao and Davao either through direct purchases, lease arrangements, contract growing or joint ventures.

In all these arrangements, farmers stand to earn more through profit sharing, guaranteed income packages or straight purchases of harvested crops, and benefit from new planting technologies that will create more jobs and boost farm production, the DA said.

The global demand for crop-based alternative fuels is expected to energize Philippine farms, increase the profitability of small stakeholders in the agriculture sector, and reduce the country’s dependence on costly, imported petroleum.

The agriculture department, through the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA), has pinpointed some 200,000 hectares of farmland devoted to other crops that can otherwise be planted to sugarcane, and which investors can consider as investment sites for ethanol projects.

The Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) is also looking for an additional 122,000 hectares of coconut lands to meet the demand for coco diesel.

The country has 3.5 million coconut farmers and 56,000 sugarcane farmers. According to a report  by the Asian Institute of Petroleum Studies Inc., the reduction in fuel consumption as a result of the enactment of the Biofuels Act will save the country about P17.3 billion a year in foregone petroleum imports.

PCA studies also show that with the local consumption of diesel pegged at seven billion liters a year, the Philippines will need at least 70 million liters of coco biodiesel in compliance with the provisions of the Biofuels Act.