Date: July 2nd 2011

Yes, I am an ardent fan of the Pongamia tree. And, no, I don't believe it can be grown widely enough for us to painlessly shift from a petrofuelSystem to a biofuelSystem.

But the hardy tree can help distributed communities meet their modest needs of liquid fuel. At pointReturn we have been growing a number of pongamia trees to hopefully demonstrate one day, that our village's transport shuttles, tractors and pumping engines can be run on biodiesel.

I met Sreenivas Ghatty of TreeOils Ltd in Zaheerabad, A P, last week and gained many insights into the nature of the tree and its cultivation. A report on my visit could be of interest to enthusiasts as well as realists rightly scared of the petro-energy black-out that awaits around the corner:

Read the story at this link: http://goodnewsindia.com/pointreturn/online/pongamia-a-mid-course-check/

with warm regards
--dv