South Cotabato offers land for jatropha planting

The agriculture office of the southern Philippine province of South Cotabato is offering as much as 15,000 hectares as site for jatropha curcas plantation to foreign investors. The planting of jatropha will not entail any crop conversion, government officials said. According to Reynaldo Legaste, South Cotabato’s agriculture chief, South Korea’s Eco Solution Co. Ltd. and its affiliate, Eco Global Bio-Oils Inc., has committed US$17 million to establish a jatropha plantation project in South Cotabato over the next three years. He identified the towns of T’boli, Surallah and Polomolok as likely sites for the project. (June 9, 2009)