In India, Jatropha is the latest crop for creating oil for energy. Jatropha is a plant with a very oily seed that will grow almost anywhere. Of course, as growing conditions improve, the amount of oil one gets improves as well. Jatropha has a lower price to energy ratio than corn by almost half. It could be the next major fuel crop.
If we all went back in time to the beginning of agriculture, we would not see the same corn, potatoes, wheat, rye and barley we see now. Fruits and vegetables would be small and at times bad tasting (not that I like brussels sprouts even now).
Biofuels have to grow up. Quickly. We do not have 10,000 years for the best seeds to be developed.
India’s President A P J Abdul Kalam has asked his scientists to come up with an improved breed of jatropha to increase its productivity.
Are there hybrids of corn that would be better for ethanol production than others? Have we even looked at that kind of research? Monsanto has and has increased yields by 2 – 4% per bushel. In 2002, Monsanto was already in the midst of its research.
Since Monsanto’s High-Fermentable Corn Hybrids took at least 6 years to be created, how long will it take for Jatropha to get to the same level of specialization? Jatropha does not have a long history of technologically-enhanced cultivation and may, therefore, be able to make greater leaps and bounds in energy production, but how long will it take? The complicating factor is that Jatropha is a perennial plant; there is no need to sell more seeds every year. There is no profit motive for Monsanto to get into the game. This will have to be government-sponsored research that is in direct competition with Monsanto and other hybridized seed providers.
How will that play out? In India and other less developed countries like Myanmar, there are already large plantings underway with government support. Myanmar is expecting to export surplus biofuel. But in America where corporations have some weight with government officials, jatropha may have a harder time getting the support it needs.
