Cadiz City Mayor Salvador Escalante has offered an area in their city to be planted with casla or jatropha, a potential source of bio-diesel, Roberto Montelibano, president of the Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said yesterday.

Montelibano said MBCCI is working with local government units, along with their agriculturists, to ensure the feasibility of planting commercial crops.

He said casla in combination with rubber and coffee can also be used to reforest barren lands, adding that in inter-cropping the three, casla can become a cash crop as it could be harvested early than the others.

In one to three years, casla can already be harvested whereas rubber, in three to five years. Montelibano said that the MBCCI is now sourcing funds from government financial institutions such as the Development Bank of the Philippines and the Land Bank of the Philippines to finance investments in casla, rubber and coffee plantations.

He said that these crops can be planted in just small portions of land.

We are trying to make planting casla, coffee and rubber affordable to everyone so we encourage everyone to support this project, he said.*NLG

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