30346: Lucien (comment): Kathleen (reply) (info) 30312 (fwd) biofuel (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

> From patlucien@yahoo.com

JoAnn,

We also need to consider the energy factor.  All agricultural equipment 
requires energy. Gasoline sells at $4US a gallon.  Haiti import 11,500 barrels 
of oil every day, which amounts to almost a Billion dollar a year.  Therefore 
biofuel production is a good idea for Haiti.

 What people are not talking about is inter-cropping. Most bio-fuel plants 
(Palm, Jatropha, and others) requires 12 feet of space between each tree.  You 
still have plenty of land to grow other crops.  What the bio-fuel crops does is 
give the farmer an ongoing stream of revenue while he waits for this crop to 
grow.  Some plants like Palm or Jatropha will produce seed almost all year 
long, the farmer will sell the crop to the bio-fuel company and have a weekly 
stream of revenue, while he grow his crops. In return, the fuel gets cheaper, 
one can then think of setting processing plants in rural Haiti for 
transformation of local crops.  This should probably be a must in government 
strategy for bio-fuel, that inter-cropping be a requirement on all land used 
for bio-fuel.

We need to think in term of business, if it is not profitable, no one will do 
it.  If we can reduce the cost of fuel in Haiti, off course, more people will 
consider setting a small processing plant.