SINGAPORE-BASED Legend Venture and Home Touch Holding Co, an Asia-focused smart home system and solution provider, have initiated a green-energy program to develop 3 million acres for castor cultivation in five years in China and southeast Asian nations.

For 2011, the project aims to develop 30,000 acres at a cost of about 90 million yuan (US$13.6 million), as the partners seek investors and land suppliers for the plan which they expect good return.

Castor oil and derivatives can be applied in the manufacturing of soaps, lubricants, paints and nylon. They can also be used to produce biodiesel though the process hasn't yet become economically viable in China.