According to some women B’laan tribal leaders from Sarangani province in the island of Mindanao in the Philippines; Jatropha Curcas cultivation for biofuels has caused hunger in their tribe as they have been planted in areas traditionally intended for food crops.
Over 500 hectares of land had been planted to Jatropha Curcas leaving them only a few hectares to plant food crops. The land that now holds Jatropha Curcas was once planted to rice, corn, banana and other root crops (most likely Cassava).
In reaction to this, Officials of the Department of Agriculture said that they had started drawing up guidelines in the conversion of farms into jatropha plantations because the government still holds food security of paramount importance.
Both the Department of Agriculture and Dept of Environment and Natural Resources are working on an agreement to identify zones which will be planted to Jatropha. This is so as to limit specific zones to biofuel production as farmers might convert to biofuel crops once it becomes more profitable than growing traditional food crops.
Jatropha Curcas is a hardy plant growing abundantly in the Philippines. It has been targetted as an ideal biofuel crop for making biodiesel because it can grow in marginal land, therefore not needing to have good soil conditions that can otherwise be allocated for food production. Some agriculturists have debated however that if you plant jatropha curcas in marginal land, you will also get marginal results.
It was reported last year that a biodiesel refinery would be built in General Santos, a city just next to Sarangani province.
[source]
Category: Biodiesel, Jatropha, Feedstock, Food vs Fuel
