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The IAD Signs Renewable Energy Agreement Project
The Institute of Dominican Agriculture (IAD) and the Vecenergy Bida Dominicana, S.A. Company have signed an agreement in which the former has consented to leasing to the latter 300,000 tareas (a land measurement unit equivalent to 629 meters) of land destined for the cultivation of Jatropha beans to be used to create alternative fuel.
Jatropha is an oil-producing plant with medicinal properties whose seeds contain a non-combustible oil that can be used as bio-diesel fuel with low exhaust emissions, among many other properties.
The Vecenergy Bida Dominicana, S.A. Company has committed to give preference to these seedlings to be cultivated in national laboratories on the condition that the cost, a fixed price, is not higher than that which can be obtained on the international market, according to sources from the President of the Republic.
The agreement also establishes that Vecenergy Bida Dominicana Company commits to pay the IAD, for its annual land leasing, the amount of $20.00 (US dollars) per tarea, which is equivalent to a first payment of $6 million dollars for the leasing of the first 300,000 tareas.
The agreement was signed by the general director of the IAD, the agricultural engineer Quilvio Cabrera Mena and Mr. David Lebrón Parejo, a Spanish citizen and president of the Vecenergy Bida Dominicana Company in a meeting also attended by the Administrative Secretary of the President, Luis Manuel Bonetti.
In 15 Provinces
The director of IAD said that among the terms of the agreement between this institution and Vecenergy Bida Dominicana, S.A. it was agreed that the company will develop a Jatropha cultivation project on one million tareas of land and that the first phase of it will be implemented in 15 provinces throughout the country.
To start, the project seeks to begin cultivation in the provinces of Barahona, San Pedro de Macorís, Azua, Santiago Rodríguez, Hato Mayor del Rey and Pedernales.
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