The Oil Petroleum Exporting Countries will soon feel that its oil exports to developing countries will diminish. Reason? Many foreign investors are now stepping up their efforts to encourage millions of farmers in Asia and the Pacific to grow jatropha plants in areas that are not suitable for other crops.
And it is likely that the growing of jatropha could set a big difference in man’s hunger for fossil fuel, which environmentalists considered as the primary source of air pollution thus seriously contributing to global warming. Perhaps, the discovery of jatropha as an alternative biofuel was timely at this stage when the prices of oil are hitting the US$70 per barrel mark, a price that is too much to bear for low income earners in poor countries. As a source of biofuel, jatropha could surely lessen the poor countries’ dependence on imported oil, whose prices are now controlled by OPEC, which is draining the huge foreign exchange earnings of the developing economies.
With the discovery of jatropha, Asian countries have now stepped up their efforts to conduct more researches and studies on how to effectively tap the wonders of this plant. At present, India is leading the bandwagon, followed by the Philippines, whose government has already set aside vast tracts of alienable and disposable lands in Central Luzon, exclusively for the growing of this plant. It won’t be long when the fruits of these efforts will be realized. At least, the government should extend assistance to further develop this plant and exhaust all means to make the biofuel projects succeed.
Agriculturists have said that jatropha can grow in all types of land, which makes it more suitable for commercial growing.