A farmer demonstrates the use of a power tiller fueled by oil extracted from castor beans in Mandalay Division last month.

THE government plans to implement a project to grow castor bean plants on 50,000 acres in each of Myanmar’s nine military divisions for use as biofuel, Lieutenant-General Myint Swe, the Chairman of the Yangon Division Peace and Development Council, said last month.

Biofuel is a renewable source of energy that is produced from dry organic matter or combustible oils produced by plants, including castor bean plants.

Lieutenant-General Myint Swe said that consumption of diesel, gasoline and natural gas was increasing at an alarming rate all over the world to fuel industrialisation, with crude oil deposits expected to run out in the next 45 years and natural gas deposits expected to be depleted in the next 65 years.

“Biofuel is essential as a substitute for diesel, gasoline and natural gas in the industrial sector,” he said.

He said Myanmar is an ideal place to produce castor oil because it has abundant land suitable for growing castor bean plants.