Efforts are being made to encourage the growth of plants that will yield biofuels, chief among them being the plant Jatropha curcas, which grows well on wasteland and needs little attention or water.
It is seen as a good source of bio-diesel, and the government has identified 400,000 square kilometers of wasteland – out of the 600,000 sq km of wasteland in the country – as suitable for cultivating the plant. Businesses are seeing its cultivation as a worthwhile investment opportunity, and it is expected to help thousands of the rural poor who own the land, which hitherto has been of little use.
It is well known that ethanol from sugarcane is an excellent substitute. Indeed, 50 per cent of the cars and other vehicles in Brazil run on ethanol or a mixture of ethanol and petroleum called “gasohol”.Incentives can be given, and the money for the switchover can and must be found. In the long run, when our dependence on imported crude oil is either eliminated or significantly reduced, it will have been worth 10 times the investments we make today
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