Biodiesel to the rescue - Can the Brazilian National Biodiesel Program encourage rural development and ease poverty in the northern regions of the country?

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject Business economics - Economic Policy, grade: 2,0, Hertie School of Governance (Master of Public Policy), course: States and Markets, language: English, abstract: The Brazilian Biodiesel Program (PNBP) is set out to reduce poverty in the underdeveloped Northern regions of the country. It encourages family agriculture from plants such as castor and palm which are not suitable for plantation farming through government subsidies and low interest credits. The PNBP would have the potentials to reach its goals, if its design and its administration were not half-hearted and the program prone to be sacrificed to the interests of the over-powering soy lobby. Without a more genuine dedication to its social focus, the PNBP is set out to end as a reprint of the highly subsidized ethanol program benefiting car-owners instead of the rural poor.