My mission is to alleviate poverty by creating business and job opportunities for the poor and generating funds for less privileged children to gain access to education and nutrition.
Contact Information
Our Focus
The project and beneficiaries will be become the most established supplier of vetiver biomass as an alternative fuel source for a pyrolytic stove, ethanol processing plant and power plant. The project will coordinate with a local financing institution and generate supply and marketing agreements with ethanol and power plant companies locally and globally.
I am currently involved in conducting a business plan for biofuels and power plants in the Philippines, a project that is intended for an ethnic group (tribal people) to alleviate poverty in the highlands. The project that I am proposing will provide jobs for all sectors of the society (men, women, out of school youth, retired citizens, etc). A 10 megawatt power plant will be supplied with biomass from 1,000 hectares grass plantation and will be able to generate the following: 1. 6,000 families to handle nursery area of 500 sqm 2. 200-1,000 families to establish 1-5 hectare biomass plantation 3. 30 laborers per hectare and haul that will harvest 80 tons per hectare of dry matter
Nursery Investment for 500sqm: US$ 160.00 Gross Sales from 500sqm: US$ 1,378.00 Net Income from 500sqm: US$ 1,218.00 (4-5 months grow out period)
Biomass Plantation Investment per hectare: US$1,814.00/ha (1st year) / US$221/ha (2nd year) Gross Sales per Hectare: US$2,572.00/ha (1st year and 2nd year) Net Income per hectare: US$758.00/ha (1st year) / US$2,351/ha (2nd year)
Other livelihood projects will be generated by this project (briquetting and pelletizing, manufacturing of pyrolytic stove, handicraft, paper manufacturing, and strawboard manufacturing). All we need to do is to work with the power plant companies so we could supply the biomass for their power generation project.
Our Experience And Interest In The Four PCIA Central Focus Areas
The original covered forest of the Philippines in the early 60's was 27 million hectares, and in late 2009 it was 7 million hectares remaining according to the report by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). The majority of the forest lands were part of the ancestral domain land where the tribes were given the right to manage the forest land through the Community-based Forest Management Authority (CBFMA) and Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) and these titles and rights were given to groups of tribe members. Thus, land territorial conflicts are inevitable. Nevertheless, the land conflict is a small issue over the 20 million forest lands that have the opportunity to create jobs for the ethnic group for food and power generation projects. Thus the program is limited to 500sqm for the less educated ethnic group and 1-5 hectare for biomass production. Vetiver grass is highly adaptable to a wide range of environments and soil conditions. It does not require sophisticated management. It is grass that grows wild but the value is very high, from which the tribe and the urban people will benefit.
There are various products that could be developed from the two projects: (1) Nursery Project - 500sqm area per family and (2) Biomass Plantation Project for ethanol and power plants.
Nursery project potential products and byproducts: vetiver seedling is the major product, byproducts 4 tons of dried biomass of trimmed roots and leaves to be utilized in various products (i.e. briquettes, pellets, biochar, roofing thatch, wall panel, and handicrafts).
Biomass Plantation products are generally dried leaves biomass for ethanol, power plants, paper and strawboard manufacturing.
I need to form a team to support the project implementation, the funding will be generated through the sales of the products to be developed. Funding from the local banks shall be generated through establishing marketing agreements with various companies identified in the energy, construction, and manufacturing sectors.
I will be needing the support from the research institution locally for the development of vetiver as alternative raw material for strawboard and paper, pyrolytic stoves through partnership with PCIA, vetiver cultural management (tissue culture, increasing tillering and biomass production).
The plan is to test pilot first the project concept (the complete cycle from initiation up to harvesting), by ensuring the realization of uplifting the financial status of the ethnic group. This is to ensure that they will be self sustaining, be able to continue the project and multiply without dependence on banking/financing institutions.
I need to field Community Organizers to support 250 hectares of plantation (a minimum of 1,500 families to handle) to be able to duplicate and multiply in other provinces.
Relevant Publications or Studies
None noted
Our Contribution to the Partnership
In the revenue that will be generated from products, there is a certain amount of percentage allocated for the farmer, the project, the cooperative, financing institution, ans subsidiaries. This is to ensure that there will be enough revenue for the ethnic tribe members and enough revenue to support the operations of the ethnic cooperative as well as the project organizers. There are revenues allocated for the cooperative which will allow for business expansion. There are a lot of products that could be generated in vetiver grass as mentioned.
