ABSTRACT
This chapter draws on a political ecology perspective to analyse the role of powerful actors, problems of expertise, the environmental subjects and local knowledge involved in the development of the National Biofuel Mission (NMB) in Chhattisgarh. Manuel Castells posited that flows and networks instead of state and societies are the new architects of global modernity. John Urry suggests that networks and flows function in three spatial patterns, namely regions, global integrated networks (GINs) and global fluids. The state government of Chhattisgarh (GoC) introducing a range of rural development schemes and projects and the pro-poor, pro-development objectives of the NMB gained purchase among the government officials. The state government established the Chhattisgarh Biofuel Development Authority (CBDA), which was designated as the primary organization responsible for promoting widespread plantations of Jatropha and the production of agrodiesel. The secondary network of farmers promoting Jatropha will wither and turn against the state's expansion policy, eventually undermining the grandiose agrofuel plans of the state.
