Popis: |
The global challenge is to increase food production in a sustainable way, given that most of the energy used comes from fossil fuels, which causes unsustainable damage to the environment, such as the greenhouse gas emissions. Aiming at diversifying the Brazilian energy matrix, the use of biofuels emerged as a promising alternative. In this context, it is important to emphasize that soybean sustains most of the biodiesel and biokerosene markets (79.1%), so it is highly dependent on this crop, which constitutes a threat concerning economical security issues. In this way, it is the need of the hour to invest in diversification of potential raw materials for biofuel production, such as Jatropha, which has been identified to present a high content of quality oil suitable for biofuels. However, the seed and oil yields per hectare of Jatropha are still too low to be economically sustainable for farmers. This situation requires the development of improved cultivars. Several research efforts with this crop have already been initiated in Brazil. However, there is still much to be done in order to bring Jatropha to the level of a commercial crop able to deliver a suitable return on farming. Considering that it presents long breeding cycles, it is important to adopt strategies for increasing the selection efficiency and genetic gain, as well as for decreasing the cultivar generation time. In view of the considerations given above, the purpose of this chapter is to integrate the information available in the literature and to report on the most promising approaches of genetics and biotechnology for the selective breeding of improved Jatropha cultivars in Brazil. |