Junking of jatropha hailed

MANILA, Philippines - House Deputy Speaker Lorenzo “Erin” R. Tañada III lauded yesterday the Department of Energy’s decision to junk the development of jatropha as a source of alternative fuel.

In a statement, Tañada said this enabled the government to save the remaining P400 million from a P1-billion fund for jatropha’s development.

“This decision is a positive development because it will offer opportunities to try the fuel conversion per hectare of other crops like cassava and sweet sorghum, but still using the P400 million unspent fund for the delisted alternative fuel crop,” Tañada said.

The move to decommision jatropha as a government-promoted alternative fuel came after studies showed that the once-acclaimed “miracle plant” will not bring the as much yield as other crops like palm oil, wherein 600 kilograms of oil from 6.25 hectares of palm crops can be produced.

With this development, Tañada challenged the Philippine National Oil Company Alternative Fuels Corp. (PAFC), the government’s alternative fuels arm, to do its best to work on the new crops listed and determine a reliable fuel conversion rate.

The Arroyo administration gave much support to jatropha as an alternative fuel source in 2009, and allotted P1 billion to PNOC-AFC to develop it. Known as a “miracle” plant, it is planted in Brazil, Philippines, India, Mali and Paraguay.

But skepticism about the miracle properties of the plant arose after it was found that its potential for alternative fuel production is marginal. Tañada’s Quezon province was part of the jathropa experiment that failed.

The Biofuels Act of 2006, which was signed into law in January 2007, mandated the PAFC and the Department of Science and Technology to identify and develop viable feedstock for the production of biofuels and implement a research and development program supporting a sustainable improvement in biofuels production and utilization.

 “What is important though is that we strike a balance between our drive to look for viable and cost efficient sources of alternative fuel and our need to secure our people’s access to food,” he said.