Bayawan boosts eco-governance project
by Rachelle Nessia
Dumaguete City (16 June) -- The local government unit of Bayawan City led by Mayor German P. Saraņa has already set the wheels turning for its eco-governance program that will shoot not two, but three birds with one stone - develop underutilized areas and provide a sustainable market-led agricultural development while producing alternative energy.
Under its eco-governance program, there are now 30,976 jatropha seedlings thriving in 15 nurseries in Bayawan City as of May 2006, according to Bayawan City Agriculturist Luis Sumalpong.
Jatropha, or locally known as "tuba-tuba", is a plant capable of producing bio-diesel fuel.
Aside from jathropa, Bayawan City is also embarking on a rubber plantation project which Sumalpong said they hope to launch by the first week of July.
He disclosed that they already have an estimated 300,000 seedlings being planted in a 60-hectare stretch in a watershed area identified by the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO).
The city government however has no plans of stopping there and is looking at expanding the rubber and jatropha plantations on a larger scale.
To encourage the 28 total barangays in the city to take part in the eco-governance program, Mayor Saraņa is offering an incentive to the barangay officials.
For the barangay that can plant 350 hectares of jathropa, the city government will acquire a jatropha oil extraction machine for them, which costs around P100,000, says Sumalpong.
"The Mayor also ordered the schools to establish jathropa nurseries within the school premises," he adds.
CENRO Chief Charlie Fabre has cited in a recent forum the active participation of the Bayawan City government in the eco-governance program of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
"Wala pa naghisgot si President Arroyo, ang atong mayor sa Bayawan aduna na sya'y 20,000 seedlings of jatropha," says Fabre during a forum held by the Philippine Information Agency to mark the celebration of Environment Month.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has earlier revved up two national programs that can stem poverty and hunger in the countryside, at the core of which is the cultivation of jatropha as a diesel substitute in the government's energy conservation program.
DENR together with the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) have identified more than 700,000 hectares for agro-forestry and biofuel cultivation nationwide.
Primary among the agricultural products being pushed by the President is jatropha, a drought-resistant perennial shrub whose fruit can be processed into oil and refined into diesel or burned in home stoves.
Found throughout the Philippines, jatropha has an economical life of up to 35 years and can live for 50 years.
A readily available and renewable fuel, jatropha grows fast, with little or no need for maintenance and can reach a height of three to eight meters.
Based on extensive testing done in India, three kilos of jatropha seed can produce a liter of crude jatropha oil. (PIA) [top]
