PNOC-AFC pushes jatropha development

The Philippine governments alternative fuel program is on track with farmers now reaping additional income from their jatropha plantations. An example is the two-hectare nursery and plantation of the family of Sabel Utap in Purok Lanton, Barangay Apopong which gets Php35 (US$0.77) per kilo of jatropha seeds that they sell to the Philippine National Oil Corporation-Alternative Fuels Corporation (PNOC-AFC). After signing Republic Act 9367 (R.A.) or the Biofuels Act of 2006 last January, PNOC-AFC was directed to spearhead the biofuels project. In her state of the nation address (SONA) in 2007, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo supported jatropha production as an alternative and cleaner fuel to lessen the countrys dependence on imported diesel fuel and at the same time contribute to poverty alleviation in the countryside by providing additional income to farmers. Last February 7, the PNOC-AFC and Jubilee Agri-Advancement Corporation (J AC) signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) to establish a 500-hectare jatropha orchard in the SOCSKSARGEN area for seedlings propagation and seed production to supply the requirements of jatropha plantations in the region. (July 22, 2008)