THE country’s bid for the production of alternative fuel resources can be addressed by an indigenous tree, which is abundant in some parts of the Cordillera Region.

A non-government organization (NGO) based in La Trinidad, Benguet is paving the way for the mass propagation of the petroleum nut, a tree whose fruits is a good source of biofuel.

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Michael Bengwayan, director of Pine Tree, an NGO that develops and implements sustainable conservation and safe livelihood practices, said about 30,000 petroleum nut seedlings have been produced and are ready for distribution.

Pine Tree initiated the mass propagation of the petroleum nut to benefit farmers and help address the global problem on climate change through the production of alternative fuel resources.

The fruit of the petroleum nut, he said, has an octane rating of 54, which is higher than that of India’s jatropha, one of the crops eyed by government as source of alternative fuel. Octane rating is the measure of how much the fuel can be compressed before it spontaneously ignites.

The oil produced by the petroleum nut fruits is intended for lighting and cooking purposes. When mixed with kerosene on a 3:1 ratio, 20 centiliter of the petroleum nut oil could burn for three to four hours.

A study done by the Forest Research Institute of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), petroleum nut oil contains 46 percent of gasoline-type components such as heptane (45 percent) and dihydroterpene.

Bengwayan said one petroleum nut tree could yield 15 kilograms of fruits, which could produce up to 80 cubic centiliters of oil.

Reforestation crop

What is good in petroleum nut, Bengwayan said, is that it also addresses the problem on deforestation.

Because of the fruits’ potential to produce oil, people would plant more of the tree species to produce more oil.

Farmers are being trained to grow the plant. Bengwayan said 23 farmers from the towns of Kapangan and Kibungan were trained to propagate the tree.

“Petroleum nut could be grown with other crops, so farmers need not convert the mountains to grow the tree. By planting the petroleum nut, one could grow his own energy needs,” he said.

Pine Tree maintains a nursery at Longlong, La Trinidad where petroleum nut seedlings were first mass propagated after years of researches on how to produce seedlings on a massive basis.

In 2005, Bengwayan’s group discovered wood ash can remove the gummy substance coating the seeds, which prevents these from germinating.

It was also during this time they found out the dormancy period of the petroleum nut seeds is long. It takes two and a half months for the seeds to sprout.

Petroleum nut grows abundantly in Benguet and in the borders of Mt. Province, Ifugao and Nueva Vizcaya area. The tree is called apisang, abkel in Benguet; dael, dingo in Mt. Province and sagaga in Abra.

Seed banking

Since the tree is endemic only to limited areas in the country, Pine Tree is encouraging farmers to also learn to store the petroleum nut seeds.

“Seed banking is important. This will be one of the ways the indigenous peoples in the region could protect the plant from biopiracy,” Bengwayan said.

One of the reasons farmers are being encouraged and are trained to grow the plant is to prevent other nationalities from patenting the tree.

Seed banking will ensure the continuous existence of the tree in the region’s mountains.

The tree bears fruits after four years.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) was advised in 2006 to include the species of petroleum nut on the list of protected species as these are rapidly disappearing.