FROM BANANA PEELS TO BIOCHAR: LET US NOT MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY

 FROM BANANA PEELS TO BIOCHAR: LET US NOT MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY

For decades, we Filipinos have been throwing away tons upon tons of banana peels. From banana cue stalls on every street corner to the giant factories that churn out banana chips and catsup, this country has been literally swimming in banana waste. But we’ve never given those banana peels a second thought.

Only God knows the real value of what we’ve wasted over the years.

But now, someone has finally figured it out—and no, it didn’t happen in Silicon Valley or Tokyo. It happened in Yaoundé, Cameroon, where a renewable energy engineer named Steve Djeutchou developed a way to turn banana peels into biochar—a high-grade, eco-friendly charcoal.

Let that sink in: what used to be garbage can now become fuel for cooking, fertilizer for crops, and a weapon against climate change. Imagine if our poorest kababayans didn’t have to rely on overpriced LPG or illegally harvested firewood. Imagine if banana farmers could earn extra by selling their peels. Imagine if food prices could drop just because cooking fuel costs went down.

So why aren’t we doing this yet?

This is the kind of innovation that screams for economic diplomacy—not the kind that sends officials abroad for photo-ops and ribbon cuttings, but the kind that goes out, finds technology, brings it home, and makes it work for Filipinos.

Under our new DFA Secretary—and with the President’s call to recalibrate the Cabinet toward fiercer service—maybe it’s time to finally bring economic diplomacy back to life. Because frankly, political diplomacy has been running on fumes ever since the Cold War ended.

Let’s be real: we need a new kind of diplomacy—one that sells more Filipino products and brings home new technologies like this one. Years ago, the DFA tried to dip its toes into technology transfer as a component of economic diplomacy. Sadly, the effort fizzled. But now, with innovations like banana peel biochar out there, it's time for a full-blown second attempt.

Here’s what makes biochar such a game-changer:

1.   It improves soil health, acting as a supercharged organic fertilizer that can increase yields while reducing the need for chemical inputs.

2.   It locks away carbon, helping us fight climate change—not by planting more trees, but by keeping carbon in the soil for centuries.

3.   It helps clean up polluted soils by trapping heavy metals and toxins.

4.   Its porous structure enhances fertilizer retention, meaning farmers use less input but get better results.

5.   It also protects crops from drought and floods, improving resilience in the face of climate chaos.

6.   And it’s not even new—Amazonian tribes used a version of this centuries ago to create the rich “terra preta” soils that still outperform modern agriculture.

Here in the Philippines, we’ve flirted with biochar before—but always in limited or academic ways. We’ve never scaled it. We’ve never made it part of an industrial or environmental strategy. But with Djeutchou’s model using something we already throw away by the truckload, maybe that’s finally about to change.

The only thing standing in the way is our own inaction.

That’s why I respectfully suggest the following: let’s instruct our Embassy in Yaoundé to get in touch with Engineer Djeutchou. Let’s get the full specs of his technology. Let’s connect him with our own experts from the DOST, the DENR, and the DOE, and study how we can implement and localize it here.

And while we’re at it, let’s stop acting like waste is waste. Waste is raw material, waiting for the right mindset.

If we could start building a biochar economy, we wouldn’t just be reducing trash—we’d be creating jobs, boosting food production, nd helping the planet at the same time. In the process, we might also rediscover a long-lost truth: that innovation doesn’t always come from high-rise labs—it can also come from humble banana peels and one brilliant mind in Africa.

So let’s act before this becomes another missed opportunity—filed under “sayang” in the Filipino lexicon of wasted potential.

We’ve already buried decades worth of banana peels in landfills. Let’s not bury the future with them.

Ramon Ike V. Seneres, www.facebook.com/ike.seneres
iseneres@yahoo.com, 09088877282, senseneres.blogspot.com

08-03-2025