‘We Are Producing The Fuel Of The Future’

The Philippines, with 7,000+ islands, is perfect for growing biofuel crops, including the drylands, wetlands, infertile soils. We just have to invest on her.

To begin with, Chris de Lavigne, Global Vice President of US-based Frost & Sullivan, says the Philippines is now ‘one of the most attractive investment sites for biofuels projects’ (asianjournal.com). He cites ‘strong government support’ as well as the Biofuels Act as reasons for his conclusion. Philippine policies on biofuels are ‘better than in other countries.’ He adds that the ‘strong foresight and management’ of the Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC)-Alternative Fuels Corp (AFC) and its advocacy of biofuels in the Philippines is another plus factor. On his part, AFC Chairman Renato Velasco says, ‘We are producing the fuel of the future.’

Another source reports that AFC has signed a US$1.3B deal with UK-based NRG Chemical Engineering to build biofuel refineries with associated plantations in the Philippines (planetark.org). AFC President Peter Abaya says they are planning to plant more than 1M hectares of jatropha, for biodiesel.

A few days ago, the Department of Agriculture (DA) signed a biofuels agreement with Praj Industries ‘to help develop the country’s biofuels industry’ during the state visit of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (PNA, tradingmarkets.com). On behalf of the DA, Undersecretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat signed for the Philippines; Shashank Inamdar, Managing Director and CEO of Praj, signed for the company. Praj will ‘provide the design, engineering and supply the biofuel production plants to potential investors.’ The DA will in turn identify the land for growing the crop and encourage the farmers to grow sweet sorghum, sugarcane, cassava, jatropha, wheat, tapioca, sugar beet, among others. Praj already has a plant that will be producing ethanol in Ormoc, Leyte by March 2008.

The DA is now identifying more than 400,000 hectares of land for private sector investments, of which about 90,000 ha are in North Luzon, 10,000 ha in Central Philippines, and 300,000 ha in Mindanao. Investors can choose from these arrangements: straight purchase, lease, contract growing, joint venture. Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap expects that the growing of biofuel crops for clean fuels will not only energize vehicles but, first of all, Philippine farms – the small farmers will benefit immensely from their harvests and the country will enjoy more and more independence from imported fossil fuels. If everything goes as expected, incomes of farmers will be guaranteed, more jobs will be created, and the local as well as national economy will perk up, animated, multiplying the effects on everyone. How is that possible? Agriculture is crucial in the country because it accounts for 25% of the gross domestic product and 35% of the labor force, according to Yap (Amy Remo, newsinfo.inquirer.net).

Now, which crop for biofuel?

Senator Migz Zubiri is for bioethanol from sugarcane. Earlier, he said: ‘The Philippines would need at least 10 bioethanol plants by 2009’ (Carla Gomez, newsinfo.inquirer.net). That would be to meet the E-5 (5% ethanol-90% gasoline blend) requirement following the Biofuels Act. Zubiri is the Father of Biofuels in the Philippines. Signed by President Arroyo early January (Maricel Cruz, manilatimes.net), the Act took effect May 7 (planetark.org). Zubiri is one of the top sugar producers in the country (alternat1ve.com).

The DA’s choice is appropriate: the investor’s choice considering the farmer’s choice. If I were the farmer, sweet sorghum is the fuel of the future for me. Based on information from the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), sweet sorghum can grow with too much or too little moisture in the soil. Having read and thought about crops and water, years ago I came to the conclusion that the problem of lack of water for irrigation can be solved best by? Lack of water. That is to say, do not irrigate at all, or irrigate sparingly. My lack-of-water theory explains why I became interested in sweet sorghum, a crop I had never seen and finally did see with my own eyes courtesy of William Dar, Director General of ICRISAT. I joined the August 29 Laguna field trip of the experts convened for the ‘Expert Consultation On Biofuels’ co-sponsored by the Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Associations (APAARI), International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maiz y Trigo (CIMMYT), Food Policy Research Institute (FPRI) and ICRISAT meeting at IRRI. At Los Baños, we saw sweet sorghum growing. (The photo comes from ICRISAT; it shows Dar, who is tall for a Filipino, being dwarfed by sweet sorghum.)

In the Philippines, Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) is the ICRISAT pilot site for sweet sorghum. In the village of Bungon in Batac, Ilocos Norte, there is a sweet sorghum cane mill and they are producing ethanol, vinegar, jaggery, syrup, cookies, popgrain (Ma Eloisa E Hernandez, bar.gov.ph). A farmer can earn 50K pesos from a hectare.

ICRISAT has a flyer online by Belum Reddy, ‘Sweet Sorghum: A water-saving, bio-energy crop for the Philippines’ (icrisat.org). Reddy says that, compared to using sugarcane in producing ethanol, sweet sorghum (1) costs less, (2) gives added value in the grains (2-6 tons/ha), (3) bagasse is rich in nutrients and minerals, good for livestock, (4) process is less polluting, (5) ethanol has higher octane rating, better for your vehicle. I have written about sweet sorghum and ICRISAT myself here: ‘On Discovery Sorghum’ and ‘The Sweet Sorghum Initiative.’)

The business approach is to take calculated risk. Personally, I would encourage the government and business sectors in their biofuel crop enterprises. Meanwhile, the experts in the consultation I mentioned earlier worry about biofuel crops competing with food supply, and they recommend to do biofuels research first, the scientific approach. Aside from that, we’re investing in people, people. I’m thinking small-farmer approach (and mitigating global warming), this: Government encourages and supports 1M small farmers planting 1M ha of degraded lands with sweet sorghum, for income and carbon credits. ICRISAT gives me the impression sweet sorghum is perfect for problem soils – drylands, wetlands, infertile soils – and I’m impressed.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 9th, 2007 at 9:20 pm and is filed under creative thinking, creative writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.