The growing interests among Asian farmers to be selective in their efforts to grow crops that can give them more incomes have started to transform the agricultural scenario in developing countries. For example, the jatropha, one particular crop that has been unknown and neglected for many centuries has graced global developments thereby sending signals to Oil Petroleum Exporting Countries to be aware of what’s going to happen next in so far as alternative biofuel is concerned.
Surely, OPEC and other oil-producing countries that have heavily depended on this natural resource as their primary means to generating huge revenues to buoy up their economies would perhaps think twice, after the growing of jatropha has been intensified in most tropical countries today. And, even without asking, OPEC is a bit threatened by this development, knowing that the massive growing of jatropha could surely diminish a big chunk of OPEC-members’ oil revenues because poor countries would certainly have something to turn to when it comes to fueling their households and other light industries.
At least, this development would buoy up Asian farmers’ hope, with the help of their respective governments, in one way or the other, boost their incomes by four-folds, thus improving their quality of their lives. At this stage, many Asian farmers, especially in the Philippines, are on a hand-to-mouth existence because of the government’s ineptitude and neglect to support them through low interest loans. What happens is that if loans are made available to these farmers, the process is not that easy. There’s a lot of intricacies involved which caused many people to be pissed off.
The introduction of jatropha, once and for all, will enable farmers to diversify. What was once a rice and corn dominated agricultural endeavors, will now be diverted somehow to the planting of jatropha, which are now grown in commercial quantities in most parts of the tropics. However, it’s success will largely depend on the institutions that will be entrusted to further develop this plant species as a primary source of biofuel in the next centuries. Unless energy officials are convinced that the massive growing of jatropha could mean more huge savings to the fledgling governments, nothing much will change towards improving the lot of millions of farmers in Third World countries. What the farmers expect are for these public officials to implement the mandates for the development of this newly-discovered alternative biofuel, rather than for something else. It is always in the best interests of developing economies to try and test its efficacy, without graft and corruptionsintervening along the way.
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