Philippines to dedicate land to sugarcane for bioenergy, hopes industry will bring jobs

Last year, the Philippines finally got its bioenergy legislation through parliament, after an agonising battle (earlier post) that put oil, farmer, land, and labor lobbies against each other (earlier post). Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap now announced that, as part of the governments green energy plans, new areas will be developed for the establishment of sugarcane plantations, the biomass of which will be used as feedstock for ethanol and power production. He assured consumers that there are sufficient farmlands to ensure stable sugar supply.

The minister said the Department of Agriculture (DAP), through the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA), will work closely with the Department of Energy in developing the Bioethanol Program, which aims to create a viable investment climate for potential investors in the biofuels industry and ensure energy security for the country. As part of a bilateral agreement, Chinese investors have entered the opportunity and are to develop an initial 40,000 hectares of lands in the country for cassava and sugar that would be used to produce ethanol for exports to China (earlier post).

Yap said the DA will scout for new sites in more than 20 provinces situated in 10 regions across the country where sugarcane is grown.

There is enough sugar production for food use. New areas will have to be developed to supply the needs of the ethanol plants that will be set up in partnership with foreign investors. -- Philippine Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap.

From 2005 to 2006, areas planted with sugarcane reached 377,182 hectares - 64,809 hectares of those in Luzon and 312,373 hectares in Visayas and Mindanao. It is expected that the Negros provinces, some of the country's poorest, are to benefit most from the bioenergy plan (earlier post).

The Philippines regained its sugar self-sufficiency status in 2002 after having continuously increased production for the last five years. Raw sugar production for the crop period from 2003 to 2004 hit a 20-year high of 2.339 million metric tons (MMT) and exceeded the initial target of 2.16MMT. For the crop year of 2005 to 2006 which ended in August last year, raw sugar production reached 2.137 MMT, a minimal 0.6% decrease over the previous crop year's 2.151 MMT. For 2006 to 2007, raw sugar production is estimated to reach 2.24 MMT, which is more than enough for domestic consumption and projected exports to the US market, SRA figures show.

Rural jobs, poverty alleviation
Meanwhile, Philippine media as well as stakeholders in the bioenergy industry are relying on a study produced by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) (to which we referred earlier) which said that biomass-based industries will create a significant number of rural jobs and stir up economic activity in poverty-stricken areas while providing a huge amount of electricity. In this regard, the government's official news agency, the Philippine Information Agency, states that:
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"IFPRI said that biomass production is labor intensive even in industrialized countries with highly mechanized industries, unlike renewable energy and fossil-fuel production. Biomass production is specially beneficial in rural areas where agriculture is the basic source of livelihood since residues or waste from farming are important biomass energy sources in densely populated regions."

Furthermore, and still using results from the IFPRI study, it adds that "crops may actually be specifically planted to produce biomass, although this may raise concern on the competition posed by crops for biomass against those for food. It further said that competition can be minimized if degraded land and surplus agricultural land are targeted for energy crops. Though these lands are less productive, targeting them for bio-energy plantations can have secondary benefits including restoration of degraded lands, IFPRI said.

The report also cited another benefit of devoting land for biomass which is carbon sequestration that contributes to reduced global warming. In developing countries, IFPRI noted, it is estimated that degraded land can reach to two billin hectares, while those pilot farms have proven that growing energy crops on degraded land can be successful."