Llibro_ISF_biodiesel

46 | Biodiésel y Cooperación para el Desarrollo
cover and a net production of Oxygen, since CO 2 is used during the process of photosynthesis. The seeds
provide oil and the meal is used as food. In case of non edible oil seeds the meal is used for bio-gas
production, which can be piped and transported for local applications.
For the success of any industrial activity, it should be self sustaining. The current global scenario is that
most of the developed countries have started granting assistance in the form of subsidies to biodiesel
manufacturers and/or users. The schemes are different for each country; policies have been formulated
for blended or 100% pure biodiesel. Considering the limited volumes, it has been very wise to provide
assistance to the manufacturer/user of biodiesel. The benefits are immense and the cost out-go is limited
as compared to assisting granted to biodiesel, since they stand to gain much more by utilizing the vast
natural resources in addition to reducing the vehicular emission levels.
It would be very short sightedness on part of any nation’s leadership to consider subsidies/assistance to
biodiesel as an expenditure or loss of revenue. In fact, this would go a long way towards nation building.
Projects of this nature need a visionary far sight, as the projects need extra faith and patience to be
eventually successful.
VIABILITY IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Most Developing and under Developed countries have huge natural resources that are underutilized. The
use of advanced agronomical techniques for production of oil bearing seeds, will present a great
opportunity to the local population in form of jobs, since the skills required are minimum in the agricultural
sector and masses can be trained with minimum efforts. This will result in an increase of efficiency
handling land and human resources.
Production Cost and marketing of Biodiesel is probably the most significant issue that all developing
countries will face, with a few exceptions there are no support policies for biodiesel. But on the other hand
almost all the developed nations have a Biodiesel policy supported by the respective governments, with an
element of subsidies.
This will result in developing countries as net exporters of biodiesel to the developed world; probably it is
natural as the product has to reach the market. But the exporting nation need to have a policy framework
to promote cultivation of oil seeds crops/plants/trees depending on the agronomical conditions in that state.
There are no simple solutions and often the ground reality is very different, but still the entire situation can
be made into a bankable (economic) proposition only with the active cooperation of all the stakeholders
i.e., farmers, local governments, processing units and finally the marketing of biodiesel.
We have learnt from the past experience in India that if any of the activity is carried out in isolation, it will
always result in a failure of the entire idea, so it has to be done on cooperative model. The milk and sugar
industry is a globally acclaimed success of our country. It is the best example of cooperation between all
the stakeholders. The results are displaying the success story of the cooperative movement in the form of
the Regional (Asia) famous brands like “Amul”.
There is huge global demand for fuels coupled with a desire to substitute fossil fuels to reduce the
dependence on imports and also to save the environment by reducing carbon emissions. But the market
is driven by price factor and we believe that Biodiesel can be produced at an economical scale with globally