Kenya is looking to the jatropha tree as a way of reducing the country’s dependence on imported fossil fuels and developing a biofuel industry.

A clean-burning oil can be extracted from the jatropha tree's seeds, which can be immediately used to power generators or be refined into biodiesel. The trees can grow even in the driest and most nutrient-depleted soils, so it doesn’t have to take up arable land needed to grow food.

Faith Odongo, a senior official at Kenya's Ministry of Energy, says that about 5,000 hectares of land are being set aside for cultivation and expects that the plant could help the country “reduce fossil fuel imports by 5 percent in the next four years” and give farmers a viable crop to grow.

Whether jatropha is a viable alternative to fossil fuels is debatable. But Continental Airlines powered a Boeing 737 for a two-hour test flight on jatropha oil mixed with algae and aviation fluid. The Los Angeles Times calls jatropha one of the "new generation of so-called sustainable biofuels that could help airlines cut fuel costs and reduce carbon emissions."

But there are drawbacks. One tree only produces two liters of fuel and the trees don't reach full maturity for four to five years.

Yet these drawbacks haven't stopped countries like India, which has set aside 100 million acres for jatropha trees and expects to use the yielded oil to "account for 20 percent of its diesel consumption by 2011," according to Time.

In this video, Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege explains how farmers in eastern Kenya are seeing their economic situation improve as a result of planting jatropha trees.