By Riza Recio
03/28/2008 [ tribune.net.ph ]
Puerto Princesa, Palawan — The provincial government of Palawan has initially committed 30,000 hectares of its own land for jathropa plantation with the propogation of seedlings to be spearheaded by the Philippine National Oil Co. unit PNOC-Alternative Fuels Corp. (PNOC-AFC).
A memorandum of agreement (MoA) was signed yesterday among Palawan Gov. Joel Reyes committee, PNOC-AFC officials and the Department of Environment And Natural Resources (DENR) for the jathropa plantation.
PNOC-AFC will have the responsibility under the MoA to undertake the development of technology and the materials for take-off of the jathropa plantation project into a sustainable source of alternative fuels through jathropa planting and processing into bidodiesel.
Reyes said the prospect for the use of land for jathropa plantation was good with idle land in the Palawan province estimated at an unverified hectararge of 200,000.
These idle lands are not suitable for planting traditional crops of rice and corn and it was the consensus of the Palawan government to devote this for planting jathropa and other non-traditional crops the rubber and palm trees.
At the nursery farm measuring 10,000 hectares situtated in Narra town, Reyes pointed out that Palawan has taken the lead in the jathropa seeds propogation and these varieties, he said, are the best among other seeds to be planted in other regions in the country.
He also allayed the fears among the Palawan populace that the arable lands intended to be use for traditional farming will be lost saying the MoA has undertaken the segregation and classification of the lands that will be devoted for jathropa plantation while those for traditional crops will not be touched and will be devoted for food crops particularly during this period of a rice shortage.
“We will try to look at the mitigating measures to address the concerns of the population on traditional crops and the environemnt,” Reyes said.
He said only a small portion of the Palawan islands is suitable for rice and corn and it will be likely that Palawan will rely to other provinces for its requirment on rice and other crops.
The development of idle land for jathropa propogation is part of the province’s commitment to the national biofuels program and for providing livelihood to its communities.
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