Is Brazil considering investing in other bioenergy crops than sugarcane?
Brazil already produced 402 million liters of biodiesel in 2007. In 2004, the federal government launched a national program to drive biodiesel production. This program foresees fiscal incentives for fuel production plants that purchase family farm crops. There are also studies being carried out by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) to make it viable to produce biodiesel from Jatropha, which also does not compete with food crops. How do you react to claims that Brazil is clearing native areas to plant soybeans and sugarcane? The area planted with cereals increased by 23% in the past 15 years, and has remained stable in the past four years. Over the same period, production grew by 140%, due to increased efficiency and progress in research. With regard to sugarcane, as I said before, the increase in the planted area has taken place largely in degraded pasture areas. I always insist it is not necessary to slash a single tree to double the agricultural production cap
