I was watching a local farming show when the topic touched on Jatropha Curcas. It turns out that a lot of people have been heading to the DENR and asking about Jatropha Curcas, the problem was that the local government units were unprepared to answer the barrage questions. So the DENR has stepped up to train their personnel to answer the common folks questions. What was surprising was on the last part of the show the host mentioned that people can register to plant Jatropha in public idle lands.
I was curious as to when this offer came out so I Googled it and found an article that was posted August of 2006. True enough, the article states that the idle lands are those belonging to mountain sides and denuded forests.(technically, in the Philippines all untitled land and any land without a government approved claim belongs to the state).
As part of the reforestation project of PhilForest (a subsidiary of the Natural Resources Development Corp. under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources) they consider planting of Jatropha for biodiesel feedstock as a reforestation project. Basically any individual or group who meets the minimum requirements can apply for a permit to plant Jatropha Curcas in the idle lands.
I have to head on to the DENR tomorrow and ask more questions about this. According to the article, if we were to plant the 2M ha with Jatropha, we would be able to yield 5.6 million liters of bio-diesel a year.
Category: Biodiesel, Jatropha
