Certainly D1 Oils plc think so. Their plan is to exploit Europe's high demand for biofuel by producing oil from jatropha seeds. They (rightly, in my view) doubt that Europe's rapeseed and waste oil can plug the gap. And they have also managed to attract the interest of oil giant BP. As this article says, jatropha is so tough, it can " . . . grow in tropical and subtropical wastelands . . . deserts, garbage dumps and rock piles, where food crops wouldn't stand a chance. Moreover, it's a low-maintenance shrub, needing about 600 mm of water, but which can survive three years of drought by dropping its leaves".

Ok, but it's always worth examining the sceptical side of any investment story. And this piece here Jatropha: Too much hype on little known plant from the Philippines does a pretty good job. It questions, citing experts, how quickly after plantation commercialization can be achieved, the yield in kilos per hectare and oil content in percent in Philippine conditions.

Still, with D1 BP's joint venture getting set to plant one million hectares and an estimated 300,000 hectares per year thereafter, we'll find out soon enough how effective Jatropha really is.