The Bayawan City government has set the wheels turning for its so-called "eco-governance program". And Bayawan Mayor German Saraña said the program "will shoot not only two, but three birds with one stone".

Saraña explained that the LGU's "eco-governance program" is in response to the calls of the national government for the country to be less dependent on imported fuel, thus Bayawan is planning to develop underutilized areas that will be planted to jatropha, provide a sustainable market-led agricultural development and produce alternative energy.

Under its eco-governance program, Bayawan has already planted 30,976 jatropha seedlings currently thriving in 15 nurseries as of May 2006, Bayawan City agriculturist Luis Sumalpong said.

Jatropha, locally known as "tuba-tuba", is a plant capable of producing bio-diesel fuel. Aside from jathropa, Bayawan City is also embarking on a rubber plantation project which Sumalpong said they hope to launch by the first week of July.

He disclosed that they already have about 300,000 seedlings being planted along a 60-hectare stretch in a watershed area under the supervision of the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office.

The city government, however, has no plans of stopping there and is looking at expanding the rubber and jatropha plantations on a larger scale, Saraña disclosed.

To encourage the 28 barangays to take part in the eco-governance program, Saraña is offering an incentive to village officials.

For the barangay that can plant 350 hectares of jathropa, the city government will acquire a jatropha oil extraction machine for them that costs about P100,000, said Sumalpong.

"The mayor also ordered the schools to establish jathropa nurseries within their campuses," he added. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo earlier revved up two national programs that can stem poverty and hunger in the countryside, at the core of which is the cultivation of jatropha as a diesel substitute in the government's energy conservation program.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources, together with the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Agrarian Reform, have identified more than 700,000 hectares for agro-forestry and biofuel cultivation nationwide.

Primary among the agricultural products being pushed by the President is jatropha, a drought-resistant perennial shrub whose fruit can be processed into oil and refined into diesel or burned in home stoves.

Found throughout the Philippines, jatropha has an economical life of up to 35 years and can live for 50 years.

A readily available and renewable fuel, jatropha grows fast, with little or no need for maintenance and can reach a height of three to eight meters.

Based on extensive testing done in India, three kilos of jatropha seed can produce a liter of crude jatropha oil.*RG

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