Biofuel development in India centres mainly around the cultivation and
processing of Jatropha plant
seeds
which are very rich in oil (40%). The drivers for this are historic, functional, economic,
environmental, moral and political. Jatropha oil has been used in India for several decades as
biodiesel
for the diesel fuel requirements of remote rural and forest communities; jatropha oil can be used
directly after extraction (i.e. without refining) in diesel generators and engines. Jatropha has the
potential to provide economic benefits at the local level since under suitable management it has the
potential to grow in dry marginal non-agricultural lands, thereby allowing villagers and farmers to
leverage non-farm land for income generation. As well, increased Jatropha oil production delivers
economic benefits to India on the macroeconomic or national level as it reduces the nation’s fossil
fuel
import bill for diesel production (the main transportation fuel used in the country); minimising the
expenditure of India’s foreign-currency reserves for fuel allowing India to increase its growing
foreign
currency reserves (which can be better spent on capital expenditures for industrial inputs and
production). And since Jatropha oil is carbon-neutral, large-scale production will improve the
country’s
carbon emissions profile. Finally, since no food producing farmland is required for producing this
biofuel (unlike corn or sugar cane ethanol, or palm oil diesel), it is considered the most
politically
and morally acceptable choice among India’s current biofuel options; it has no known negative impact
on
the production of the massive amounts grains and other vital agriculture goods India produces to
meet
the food requirements of its massive population (circa 1.1 Billion people as of 2008). Other
biofuels
which displace food crops from viable agricultural land such as corn ethanol or palm biodiesel have
caused serious price increases for basic food grains and edible oils in other countries.
The Government is currently implementing an ethanol-blending program and considering initiatives in
the
form of mandates for biodiesel. Due to these strategies, the rising population, and the growing
energy
demand from the transport sector, biofuels can be assured of a significant market in India. On 12
September 2008, the Indian Government announced its ‘National Biofuel Policy’. It aims to meet 20%
of
India’s diesel demand with fuel derived from plants. That will mean setting aside 140,000 square
kilometres of land. Presently fuel yielding plants cover less than 5,000 square kilometres.