“Tuscany is looking to its sunflowers to help build a greener world and a rosy future for the region's agriculture.
The regional government has launched a major new project entitled VOICE (Vegetable Oil Initiative for a Cleaner Environment) to boost sunflower cultivation for biofuel production.
The 3.4-million-euro three-year programme will turn over large areas of Tuscany's beautiful countryside to sunflower production.
Experiments will also be carried out on plant varieties and farm techniques that maximize the sunflowers' oil yield.
"Pure sunflower oil is a raw material that can be used to produce biofuels via an esterification process that makes it similar to traditional petrol," explained Florence University's David Chiaramonti at the presentation of the initiative.
"When it is blended with a 5% traditional petrol portion it is compatible with conventional engines and distribution systems".
Chiaramonti added that high-quality sunflower biofuel can be used in electricity-generation turbines and motors.
Experts say the fuel tanks of small ships, tugs, farm machinery, lorries, coaches and even cars can be adapted to make them biofuel-fed.
Sunflower oil produces slightly less power than conventional fuels, but its supporters say this is a small price to pay for the environmental advantages.
Because it is a plant product, it contains none of the pollutants of petroleum-derived fuels.
Unlike diesel it leaves no sulphur dioxide in the air and no fine particles.
And while coal, oil and natural gas will eventually run out, sunflower oil is a renewable - and therefore potentially unlimited - source of energy.
Chiaramonti stressed that there are advantages in terms of lower emissions of the greenhouse gases that are causing global warming too.
"Sunflower oil fuel gives off half as much carbon dioxide as the quantity emitted by diesel to produce the same amount of energy," Chiaramonti said.
Italy must step up its use of renewable energy if it is to respect its Kyoto Protocol commitments and do its bit to combat climate change.
Kyoto set Italy the goal of cutting emissions by 6.5% on 1990 levels. But emissions have actually gone up by over 12%.
Furthermore, rising oil prices are starting to make biofuels increasingly attractive from an economic viewpoint.
If left untaxed, experts calculate sunflower oil would be competitive with diesel.â€
