Oil-producing trees to help solve fuel shortage

Oil-producing trees are being planted in southwest China’s Yunnan Province to increase the region’s fuel supply.

The new project will result in more than 666,000 hectares of jatropha curcas trees being planted with the aim of extracting bio-diesel for automobiles. This year, the trees will be planted over a 25,000-hectare area.

Currently, the forest coverage rate of the province stands at 49.4 percent, according to the provincial forestry bureau. The province still has four million hectares of barren hills, 1.2 million hectares of which are located in the dry and warm valleys of the Jinsha, Lancang and Honghe rivers, where jatropha curcas trees can grow well.

Xinhua