h u r y , G. M i s r a andS. K. N i g a m *
There is a likelihood of food shortage becoming acute in developing countries and people will have to depend increasingly on plants rather than animals for their dietary requirernents.Tomeet thegrowingdemandoffat which have texture like butter because of the higher percentage of saturated fatty acids, little known or neglected plants could be investigated. The paper reviews the work so far done on such aspect and highlights the plants which could be taken up for systematic plantation.
It is axiomatic that fauna can not survive without flora which are replenishable source of food, fibre and shelter. Plants as such are store-house of energy. The whole plant or its various parts are directly utilized as a source of energy in the form of food or fuel and indirectly as raw materials for the production of energy rich materials like sugar,alcohol, fat and protein from seeds, biomass for thermal energy.
Since the emergence of OPEC group and political pressure the world economy got shattered due to unpredictable rise in the price of petroleum products. It is estimated that import bill for 1980-1981 will be Rs. 5000 crores amounting to 65 Yo of our export earnings. Progressively in the coming five years all our export earnings will be wiped off just for importing petrol products from OPEC countries. Such a situation has forced the scientists world over to search for plants that would yield products which could be economically converted into gasoline. Even otherwise, the diesel and petrol are exhaustible resources and the alternative has to be a replenishable source.
The apprehensions are that if we presume that there Mlll be a progressive growth rate of 7 Yo exhaustion of oil will occur some time between 2000 and 2005, that is a bare 25 years from now. Ifthe unrealistic, but more optimistic case of no increase in consumption is to be taken, then oil exhaustion will occur not later than 2075 A.D.