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| The technology adoptors of Cabaggan, Pamplona, Cagayan and a team of experts from MMSU who showed them how to maximize the use of nipa as a promising source of bioethanol |
By Leilanie G. Adriano
Staff reporter
Pamplona, Cagayan—Filipinos of this generation associate nipa
palm with the rooftops of old farm huts in the middle of fields tended by their
grandparents. But residents of Brgy. Cabaggan in this Cagayan town have known
for decades that sap extracted from nipa palm helps the neighborhood make
“lambanog” (local wine).
Marciano Tabia, 44, said they
cannot end a day without taking lambanog, particularly during rainy days.
Unpredictable weather has
made farming a gamble for the small town, so lambanog and fishing have been the
community’s more feasible enterprises.
Mr. Tabia said the lambanog
market is seasonal and there are times when he would barter 60 liters of
lambanog for a cavan of rice.
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| Manong Macario Tabia, 44, a local processor of nipa wine making (lambanog) in Cabaggan, Pamplona, Cagayan. |
Now comes a team of experts
from the Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) which may have discovered a new
by-product of the community’s vast nipa stands along the stretch of the
Pamplona River—bioethanol.
Dr. Shirley Agrupis, an MMSU
researcher; and Dr. Fiorello Abenes, a Fulbright scholar and returning
scientist, have established a barangay-scale bioethanol facility in Cabaggan,
confident it would restore nipa’s prominence in agriculture, this time as a
fuel source.
Ms. Agrupis is the MMSU
bioethanol project leader and principal researcher of the government-backed
nipa bioethanol project.
The facility was commissioned
on Aug. 12 and would be operated by the local Ibanag community.
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| MMSU's first village-scale bioethanol refinery in Batac City, Ilocos Norte now adopted in Cabaggan, Pamplona, Cagayan. |
Nipa may be the most economic
and sustainable source for bioethanol production because it grows in abundance
in coastal areas and estuarine habitats of the Pacific Ocean, Ms. Agrupis said.
Unlike sweet sorghum and
sugarcane, she said a nipa stand would not instigate another debate as to
whether food grown should be primarily consumed by the public or be converted
into fuel.
Nipa can also live for more
than 50 years, she added.
Producing as much as 26,000
liters of alcohol in a hectare a year, nipa is four times more productive than
sugarcane, which is also a source of alcohol. A hectare of sugarcane generates
6,700 liters of alcohol.
With a capacity to produce 850
liters of bioethanol each day, the Pamplona distillery is expected to lead the
way as the first local trading center of ethanol supply in the country.
The MMSU bioethanol project
started in 2009. Moving from town to town to look for raw materials, the study
team composed of chemists, mechanical engineers, biologists, foresters and
microbiologists found itself in Cabaggan where nipa stands grow in abundance.
Nipa stands also grow
naturally in the towns of Pamplona and Abulug.
Crisanta Leaño, Cabaggan barangay
chairperson and chair of the Nipa Wine Making Cooperative in Pamplona, said the
bioethanol team gave them a new avenue for improving their nipa business.
Bioethanol may also change
local lifestyles and reduce the number of town drunks, said Elizabeth Tabia, a
member of the Cabaggan Women’s Group.
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