Concerns are raised over bio-crop

Jatropha has been hailed as a miracle crop in India, but this biofuel could spell disaster for farming as other agricultural crops are pushed out of fertile soils. Jatropha is found growing wild throughout India and the seeds of this shrub which grows well on poorly irrigated land produce non-edible oil which can be blended with diesel to make biofuel.

This solution which can provide a renewable source to India’s growing energy needs has received huge government backing over recent years. However, recent research has shown that the crop yields less than previously thought and Jatropha has been found to have been planted on fertile farmland, undermining two of it’s best selling points.

Sharachchandra Lele, a senior fellow at ATREE, an Indian environmental research group promoting sustainable development said “Jatropha is being talked of as a crop that will grow on marginal and uncultivated land, and which will not compete with mainstream cultivation. But this is not what is happening in practice. Some state governments are promoting its cultivation on regular agricultural land, where it will displace existing crops, including food crops”.

The Indian government has aggressively promoted production of the crop, setting its sights on 11 million hectares (27 million acres) of plantations nationwide by next year.

Government policy stipulates that by 2017 all petrol and diesel fuel must have 20 percent biofuel content, one of many moves aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions blamed for climate change. Read more…