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Biofuels need not be suspended to boost rice production - Nene
By Butch Fernandez
BusinessMirror
April 4, 2008
THERE is no need to suspend the government's biofuels program so that more agricultural lands can be devoted to the planting of rice and other food crops, according to Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr.
In a statement, Pimentel said the government should not backtrack from developing alternative, renewable sources of energy that are abundant in the country to further reduce the country's dependence on imported oil, which has soared beyond $100 a barrel in the world market in recent weeks.
“With the price of crude oil shooting up to $106 per barrel, there may come a time when we could no longer afford this imported commodity,” Pimentel said. “We should not stop working to attain self-sufficiency in energy,” he added.
Pimentel, principal author of the Biofuels Act of 2007 (also known as Republic Act 9367), rejected proposals to postpone implementation of the biofuels law due to apprehensions that it may endanger the country's food security, especially in the wake of the current rice crisis.
He allayed fears that the production of biofuels—also called “green” or plant-based fuels—may adversely affect domestic food production, saying this may be true only in the United States and Europe where corn, wheat and sorghum crops are the main ingredients for making ethanol as a substitute fuel for motor vehicles.
“The situation in the Philippines is entirely different because sugar cane is being used here as main ingredient for ethanol,” Pimentel pointed out, adding “this will not affect the sugar supply in the domestic market because the bulk of the country's sugar production is being exported.”
The Senator also noted that the Department of Agriculture (DA) has already identified sizeable areas of agricultural lands that can be develop as additional rice plantations. He added that ethanol production would enable sugar planters to make profitable use of their excess sugar cane after meeting domestic requirements and export quotas.
Moreover, Pimentel explained that the production of coco diesel also led to increased demand for coconut oil, giving a much-needed shot-in-the-arm to the ailing coconut industry. At present, he said, coconut oil is widely used for cooking oil, but the bulk of this product is exported to other countries.
The government, he added, is also promoting jatropha as a biofuel source and has ordered the use of huge tracts of idle public and private lands for jatropha plantations. Pimentel explained that these lands are mostly located in upland and hilly areas and unsuitable for rice planting.
At the same time, Pimentel cited a DA report that 15 foreign and local companies have embarked on biofuel ventures with P34 billion worth of proposed investments covering 725.300 hectares of land to be planted to sugar cane, jatropha or tuba tuba, palm oil and coconut.
The Alternative Fuels Corp. of the Philippine National Oil Co. and the Philippine Forest Corp. under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources are overseeing the government's massive jatropha-plantation program.
It was reported that a total of 137,537 hectares of what used to be idle lands spread in military reservations have been devoted for jatropha nurseries and plantations. Another 50,000 hectares of lands in government penal colonies, including Iwahig, Palawan , will be converted into jatropha plantations.
Pimentel also argued that biofuels will provide not only alternative energy sources but will also lessen air pollution as ethanol, for instance, is considered a clean fuel because it is unlike gasoline or diesel which emits a lot of carbon dioxide.
