(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-12-14 20:02

The State Forestry Administration (SFA) has reached agreements with China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), Sinopec, China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC), and China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corp. (COFCO) to develop biofuel demonstration projects in the three provinces and the southernmost island of Hainan.

Experts have estimated that some 2 million ha. of barren land and mountains in the southwest are suitable for the growth of Jatroha L.

China has been raising oil-bearing trees on some 4 million ha. of land in different regions. More could be planted on 57 million ha. of what is now underdeveloped wilderness, the head of the SFA, Jia Zhibang, has said.

The government plans to cultivate 13 million ha. of high-grade bioenergy forest by 2020, which will yield 6 million tons of diesel, which would be enough to fuel an 11-million-kilowatt power plant, according to a forestation plan compiled by SFA.

Chinese officials have said that the country would increase biodiesel output to 200,000 tons by 2010 and 2 million by 2020. There is no exact tally of current biodiesel production, as it involves a handful of small plants.

Further use of grain for ethanol production has been banned in China to ensure that grain remains available for food.

Jatroha L projects have also attracted foreign investors. For example, an American energy company, Becco Biofuel, plans to invest up to US$2 billion in growing 200,000 ha. of Jatroha L and establishing a 400,000-ton biodiesel refinery in Panzhihua City, Sichuan.

India, Uganda and Vietnam have launched experiments in cultivating the tree under sponsorship from Germany and the United Nations.

India hoped to produce 10 million tons of biodiesel a year in 10 years while the United States planned to increase the output of biodiesel to 1.15 million tons by 2010.

Growing "diesel trees" has helped raise farmers' living standards in areas where incomes are low and the land is poor.

More than 10,000 farmers are being employed by the Zhongshui company to plant the crop. Each household is expected to earn up to 30,000 yuan (US$4,000) per hectare as of next year, when the trees began to yield fruit. Growing the more lucrative crop will almost double their family incomes, which have come mainly from corn, rice and vegetables.

A poverty-relief campaign, initiated by the United Nations Development Program, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Ministry of Commerce last November, will invest US$8.585 million to help farmers cultivating the plant in Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan.

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