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Friday, June 23, 2006
Bayawan firms up tuba tuba, rubber plantation projects
By Neil C. Rio
BAYAWAN CITY -- Even before President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo bared a massive program to harness the jathropa, locally known as tuba tuba, as fuel substitute, Bayawan City already had a thriving nursery for the shrub that is capable of producing bio-diesel fuel.
The City Government started the nursery with the help of the eco-governance program of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
In a recent forum of the Philippine Information Agency, Community Environment and Natural Resources Office 2 (Cenro 2) chief Charlie Fabre confirmed the partnership saying the city had raised 20,000 seedlings of the jathropa even before Arroyo announced the program.
Bayawan City agriculturist Luis Sumalpong said that as of May, almost 31,000 jathropa seedlings were thriving in 15 nurseries throughout the city.
Aside from jathropa, the city has also planted an estimated 300,000 seedlings in a 60-hectare portion of the watershed area identified by Cenro 2.
Sumalpong said the rubber plantation project was to be launched first week of next month.
He said the City Government planned to expand the rubber and jathropa plantations by encouraging the people of its 28 barangays to join the city-DENR eco-governance program.
Mayor German Saraña pledged to buy a jathropa oil extraction machine that costs P100,000 for the barangay that could plant 350 hectares of jathropa, Sumalpong said.
Moreover, he said the mayor has ordered schools to build jathropa nurseries within their premises.
Found throughout the Philippines, the tuba tuba, is a perennial shrub and resistant to drought. It has an economical life of up to 35 years but can live for 50 years.
It grows fast without maintenance and can grow up to three-eight meters.
Based on extensive testing done in India, three kilos of jathropa can produce a liter of crude oil.
(June 22, 2006 issue)
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