by Prime Sarmiento
Jun 25 (Newsmekong) -
The jatropha plant is not yet a household word, but experts say it can help economies in the Mekong region cope with both energy and food self-sufficiency needs at a time of surging fuel prices.
The jatropha plant may also earn more points for being a ‘safer’ source of biofuel amid fears that the popularity of biofuels is leading to the prioritisation of energy and profit over food needs. This is because cultivating this hardy plant would not only provide biofuel, but also ensure that agricultural lands devoted to food production would not be diverted to fuel crops.
“Planting jatropha is commercially viable. The main advantage of jatropha is that you can plant it even in idle lands,” according to Mercedita Sombilla of the Philippines-based Southeast Asian Regional Centre for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) who is doing a study on the development of biofuel industry in the Mekong region. The study is funded by the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (AsDB).
The Mekong countries, whose economic integration has been underway over the past 15 years, are Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and south-western China, specifically Yunnan and Guangxi.
Jatropha oil is obtained from Jatropha curcas oilseed, a tree-borne oilseed that was first cultivated in South America and brought to Africa and Asia by Portuguese traders centuries ago. But it was only recently, owing to the worldwide interest in biofuels and search for alternatives to petroleum products, that jatropha became one of the most sought after source of biofuel.
In a report Sombilla presented in a recent AsDB forum here, Sombilla identified jatropha, along with cassava and sweet sorghum, as having the most potential to be developed as a source for biofuel. Ample land and labour resources, combined with favourable weather conditions, can help not only in mass cultivation of jatropha but also other fuel crops in Mekong region, she said. The development of the biofuel industry is one of the key concerns of growing Asian economies, most of which depend on imported oil to meet their rising energy demands. The International Energy Agency forecasts that by 2030, Asia’s consumption of oil will rise by 112 percent and account for 36 percent of world’s energy consumption. But the skyrocketing prices of oil, combined with concerns over climate change, have been spurring Asian economies to look for alternatives to fossil fuel. Biofuels can reduce both their carbon emissions and dependence on imports. Among the Mekong countries, Thailand, Vietnam and Burma have been using palm oil, sugarcane and fish oil as biofuel. But only Thailand has a comprehensive strategy on biofuel development.
Its National Biofuels Committee invests in financing, research and marketing of biofuel. The Thai government plans to boost its biofuel production in 10 years by increasing the country’s cassava yield of 23 metric tonnes per hectare to 50 tonnes per hectare by 2020, and its sugarcane yield from 56 tonnes/hectare to 106 tonnes/hectare in 2021.
According to Amnuay Thongsathitya of the Thai energy ministry, the government is also encouraging farmers to cultivate oil palm and jatropha as biofuel sources.
Possible problems lie however in the fact that biofuel has also been blamed for recent food price hikes. Subsidies - like those provided by the U.S. government to promote the biofuel industry - encouraged farmers to cultivate corn and sugarcane for biofuel production. This crimped global food supply and pushed up food prices, critics say.
“If the current biofuel expansion continues, calorie availability in developing countries is expected to grow more slowly; and the number of malnourished children is projected to increase,” Mark Rosegran, director of the environment and production technology division at the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute, said in a paper in May.
This is also a major concern in Asia. A massive shift from food to fuel crop cultivation might not only endanger food security also disrupt global food supply – the Mekong region is home to some of the world’s biggest agricultural exporters. Thailand and Vietnam are among the world’s biggest producers and exporters of rice, sugar, cassava and coffee.
“We don’t have enough land to accommodate both food and fuel crops. We can’t sacrifice food for fuel,” said Kan-ichiro Matsumura, visiting researcher at Japan’s National Institute for Environmental Studies. Still, Matsumura believes jatropha is one fuel crop that will not compete with food crops for fertile lands.
Indeed, unlike other fuel crops as corn and sugarcane, jatropha can thrive even in idle lands and do not require much water. It is also easy to plant and is touted to bring in additional income for farmers.
India, a very strong advocate of jatropha, leads the trend in Asia in using it as biofuel. The Indian government has commissioned research to look into jatropha's potential and ordered state-run oil companies to buy jatropha-made biodiesel. India’s local governmnents also hand out free saplings to farmers.
But Sombilla cautioned that intensive research is needed before any government can encourage large-scale jatropha cultivation. For instance, she has heard reports that jatropha’s oil yield is not that much and views that from income from planting jatropha may not be worth one’s energy.
In Laos and Cambodia, it would be difficult to cultivate jatropha on a large scale as most of the unused land areas are scattered all over the country.
More important, Sombilla said that there is a need for each country and the Mekong region as a whole to craft a comprehensive strategy that will promote the production, use and cross-border trading of jatropha and other fuel crops.
“There is a tendency for farmers to shift to fuel crops because the prices of fuel crops are higher than food crops. So we need to strengthen the food market economy,” Sombilla said. “The government should provide more support services to farmers, like irrigation, to discourage them from shifting to fuel crops.”
The jatropha plant may also earn more points for being a ‘safer’ source of biofuel amid fears that the popularity of biofuels is leading to the prioritisation of energy and profit over food needs. This is because cultivating this hardy plant would not only provide biofuel, but also ensure that agricultural lands devoted to food production would not be diverted to fuel crops.
“Planting jatropha is commercially viable. The main advantage of jatropha is that you can plant it even in idle lands,” according to Mercedita Sombilla of the Philippines-based Southeast Asian Regional Centre for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) who is doing a study on the development of biofuel industry in the Mekong region. The study is funded by the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (AsDB).
The Mekong countries, whose economic integration has been underway over the past 15 years, are Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and south-western China, specifically Yunnan and Guangxi.
Jatropha oil is obtained from Jatropha curcas oilseed, a tree-borne oilseed that was first cultivated in South America and brought to Africa and Asia by Portuguese traders centuries ago. But it was only recently, owing to the worldwide interest in biofuels and search for alternatives to petroleum products, that jatropha became one of the most sought after source of biofuel.
In a report Sombilla presented in a recent AsDB forum here, Sombilla identified jatropha, along with cassava and sweet sorghum, as having the most potential to be developed as a source for biofuel. Ample land and labour resources, combined with favourable weather conditions, can help not only in mass cultivation of jatropha but also other fuel crops in Mekong region, she said. The development of the biofuel industry is one of the key concerns of growing Asian economies, most of which depend on imported oil to meet their rising energy demands. The International Energy Agency forecasts that by 2030, Asia’s consumption of oil will rise by 112 percent and account for 36 percent of world’s energy consumption. But the skyrocketing prices of oil, combined with concerns over climate change, have been spurring Asian economies to look for alternatives to fossil fuel. Biofuels can reduce both their carbon emissions and dependence on imports. Among the Mekong countries, Thailand, Vietnam and Burma have been using palm oil, sugarcane and fish oil as biofuel. But only Thailand has a comprehensive strategy on biofuel development.
Its National Biofuels Committee invests in financing, research and marketing of biofuel. The Thai government plans to boost its biofuel production in 10 years by increasing the country’s cassava yield of 23 metric tonnes per hectare to 50 tonnes per hectare by 2020, and its sugarcane yield from 56 tonnes/hectare to 106 tonnes/hectare in 2021.
According to Amnuay Thongsathitya of the Thai energy ministry, the government is also encouraging farmers to cultivate oil palm and jatropha as biofuel sources.
Possible problems lie however in the fact that biofuel has also been blamed for recent food price hikes. Subsidies - like those provided by the U.S. government to promote the biofuel industry - encouraged farmers to cultivate corn and sugarcane for biofuel production. This crimped global food supply and pushed up food prices, critics say.
“If the current biofuel expansion continues, calorie availability in developing countries is expected to grow more slowly; and the number of malnourished children is projected to increase,” Mark Rosegran, director of the environment and production technology division at the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute, said in a paper in May.
This is also a major concern in Asia. A massive shift from food to fuel crop cultivation might not only endanger food security also disrupt global food supply – the Mekong region is home to some of the world’s biggest agricultural exporters. Thailand and Vietnam are among the world’s biggest producers and exporters of rice, sugar, cassava and coffee.
“We don’t have enough land to accommodate both food and fuel crops. We can’t sacrifice food for fuel,” said Kan-ichiro Matsumura, visiting researcher at Japan’s National Institute for Environmental Studies. Still, Matsumura believes jatropha is one fuel crop that will not compete with food crops for fertile lands.
Indeed, unlike other fuel crops as corn and sugarcane, jatropha can thrive even in idle lands and do not require much water. It is also easy to plant and is touted to bring in additional income for farmers.
India, a very strong advocate of jatropha, leads the trend in Asia in using it as biofuel. The Indian government has commissioned research to look into jatropha's potential and ordered state-run oil companies to buy jatropha-made biodiesel. India’s local governmnents also hand out free saplings to farmers.
But Sombilla cautioned that intensive research is needed before any government can encourage large-scale jatropha cultivation. For instance, she has heard reports that jatropha’s oil yield is not that much and views that from income from planting jatropha may not be worth one’s energy.
In Laos and Cambodia, it would be difficult to cultivate jatropha on a large scale as most of the unused land areas are scattered all over the country.
More important, Sombilla said that there is a need for each country and the Mekong region as a whole to craft a comprehensive strategy that will promote the production, use and cross-border trading of jatropha and other fuel crops.
“There is a tendency for farmers to shift to fuel crops because the prices of fuel crops are higher than food crops. So we need to strengthen the food market economy,” Sombilla said. “The government should provide more support services to farmers, like irrigation, to discourage them from shifting to fuel crops.”
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