Jatropha Toxic

Jatropha can be toxic
Friday, April 25, 2008
Jatropha can be harmful, expert warns
By Conrad M. Cariño, Senior Desk Editor

A top biotechnologist in the country said the government should not
encourage marginalized farmers to plant jatropha on a massive scale
because that would put them at a disadvantage.

Dr. Saturnina Halos, chairman of the Department of
Agriculture-Biotechnology Advisory Team, told The Manila Times that
farmers would be at the receiving end if they plant jatropha because
the only big market for that crop is biodiesel.

Halos said jatropha is "toxic" to the soil, and may contain a
neurotoxin that can harm or kill humans.

"The farmers will be placed at a disadvantage, because the only big
market for jatropha is biodiesel. What if that market suddenly
disappears … the farmer would be left in a pitiful state," she added.

While jatropha planting is encouraged along lands where rice cannot be
planted, Halos said the biofuel crops that the government should
propagate should also have a market for food. Among these are coconut,
malunggay, cassava, sweet sorghum, and sugarcane.

She added that there is no need to devote so much land for biofuel
crops, as far as complying with the Biofuels Law is concerned.

Halos said her son, Ari Halos, a former professor at University of the
Philippines-Los Baños, undertook a study in 2007 on the planting
requirements of the Philippines to comply with the Biofuels Law. The
study showed the country needs to devote only 60,000 hectares of lands
for planting bioethanol crops, particularly sweet sorghum.

Bioethanol refers to the plant additive for gasoline, while biodiesel
is for diesel.

Halos said her son's study showed that there may be no need to devote
new areas to plant biodiesel crops, because the Philippines already
has 324 million coconut trees, and 16 million more trees will be
planted through a program of the Philippine Coconut Authority.

While coconut is also a source of food additives such as cooking oil
and condiments, she agreed that the biodiesel market will provide
opportunities for poor coconut farmers to earn more, because they will
have an alternative market for their products.

Halos said the findings of her son's studies showed that biofuel
production for domestic demand will not have a negative impact on
farmland planted to food crops, because there is no need to devote
millions of hectares to plant biofuel crops.

"If we need to export biofuel stocks, then that might need the
planting of biofuel crops in more lands. What I have heard is
California is now looking at the Philippines for biofuel [stocks],"
she added.

The country has 10 to 11 million hectares of lands planted mostly to
food crops, with another two to four million hectares available for
planting new crops.

Other biofuel crops Halos strongly recommends are malunggay and sweet
sorghum, which can be planted in rice farms after two seasons of
planting rice.

Malunggay, like coconut, she revealed, can be planted even in areas
near the seashore, where traditional food crops cannot be cultivated.
Also, malunggay oil, like coconut oil, is now being used in the
manufacture of processed foods, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals.

Another versatile biofuel crop is sweet sorghum. Halos said this crop
can be planted in rice fields after two croppings of rice, since sweet
sorghum needs less water to grow.

"Usually after two croppings of rice, there is little water left to
plant [rice]. So farmers can plant sweet sorghum [for the third
cropping], she added.

Fortunately, unlike other government agencies, the Agriculture
department is not encouraging the mass propagation of jatropha.

http://www.akha.org/content/environment/jatrophatoxic.html