To begin with, Dar does not oppose the jatropha project of the state-owned PNOC Alternative Fuels Corp. Now the director-general of India-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Dar in fact backs biodiesel extraction from the inedible nut. “We are promoting massive planting of field-tested jatropha and pongamia (oilseed) varieties to rehabilitate wastelands and dry-land villages,” Dar said yesterday in a press statement. “When cultivated in this context, jatropha and pongamia do not gobble up areas for food production.”
Sa e-mail niya sa akin, lumalabas na pabor si Dar sa jatropha, ang biodiesel na itinutulak ng PNOC Alternative Fuels Corp. “Pinu-promote namin ang pagtatanim ng mga subok nang varieties ng jatropha, upang magamit ang mga tigang at wasak na lupain,” kuwento ni Dar. “Kapag itatanim ang ganitong mga subok na varieties, hindi mauubos ng jatropha ang mga lupaing dapat gamitin sa pagkain.”