Jatropha in Gambia

Jatropha may be the answer for future fuel introduction. Jatropha curcas is a drought-resistant perennial, growing well in marginal/poor soil. It is easy to establish, grows relatively quickly and lives, producing seeds for 50 years.  Jatropha the wonder plant produces seeds with an oil content of 37%. The oil can be combusted as fuel without being refined. It burns with clear smoke-free flame, tested successfully as fuel for simple diesel engine. The by-products are press cake a good organic fertilizer, oil contains also insecticide.   It is found to be growing in many parts of the country, rugged in nature and can survive with minimum inputs and easy to propagate. Medically it is used for diseases like cancer, piles, snakebite, paralysis, dropsy etc. Jatropha grows wild in many areas of
India and even thrives on infertile soil. A good crop can be obtained with little effort.  Depending on soil quality and rainfall, oil can be extracted from the Jatropha nuts after two to five years. The annual nut yield ranges from 0.5 to 12 tons. The kernels consist of oil to about 60 percent; this can be transformed into biodiesel fuel through esterification.  Family: Euphorbiaceae Synonyms: Curcas purgans Medic. Vernacular/common names: English- physic nut, purging nut; Hindi – Ratanjyot Jangli erandi; Malayalam – Katamanak; Tamil – Kattamanakku; Telugu – Pepalam; Kannada – Kadaharalu; Gujarathi – Jepal; Sanskrit – Kanana randa; Wolf – Tabanani.  

Distribution and Habitat.It is still uncertain where the centre of origin is, but it is believed to be Mexico and Central America. It has been introduced to Africa and Asia and is now cultivated world-wide. This highly drought-resistant species is adapted to arid and semiarid conditions. The current distribution shows that introduction has been most successful in the drier regions of the tropics with annual rainfall of 300-1000 mm.It occurs mainly at lower altitudes (0-500 m) in areas with average annual temperatures well above 20°C but can grow at higher altitudes and tolerates slight frost. It grows on well-drained soils with good aeration and is well adapted to marginal soils with low nutrient content.  

Botanical Features It is a small tree or shrub with smooth gray bark, which exudes whitish colored, watery, latex when cut. Normally, it grows between three and five meters in height, but can attain a height of up to eight or ten meters under favourable conditions.

Leaves:It has large green to pale-green leaves, alternate to sub-opposite, three-to five-lobed with a spiral phyllotaxis.
 

Flowers: The petiole length ranges between 6-23 mm. The inflorescence is formed in the leaf axil. Flowers are formed terminally, individually, with female flowers usually slightly larger and occur in the hot seasons. In conditions where continuous growth occurs, an unbalance of pistillate or staminate flower production results in a higher number of female flowers. 

Fruits: Fruits are produced in winter when the shrub is leafless, or it may produce several crops during the year if soil moisture is good and temperatures are sufficiently high. Each inflorescence yields a bunch of approximately 10 or more ovoid fruits. A three, bi-valved cocci is formed after the seeds mature and the fleshy exocarp dries.  

Seeds:The seeds become mature when the capsule changes from green to yellow, after two to four months from Flowering and fruiting habit the trees are deciduous, shedding the leaves in the dry season. Flowering occurs during the wet season and two flowering peaks are often seen. In permanently humid regions, flowering occurs throughout the year. The seeds mature about three months after flowering. Early growth is fast and with good rainfall conditions nursery plants may bear fruits after the first rainy season, direct sown plants after the second rainy season. The flowers are pollinated by insects especially honey bees.  

Ecological Requirements: Jatropha curcas grows almost anywhere – even on gravelly, sandy and saline soils. It can thrive on the poorest stony soil. It can grow even in the crevices of rocks. The leaves shed during the winter months form mulch around the base of the plant. The organic matter from shed leaves enhance earth-worm activity in the soil around the root-zone of the plants, which improves the fertility of the soil.   Regarding climate, Jatropha curcas is found in the tropics and subtropics and likes heat, although it does well even in lower temperatures and can withstand a light frost.   Its water requirement is extremely low and it can stand long periods of drought by shedding most of its leaves to reduce transpiration loss. Jatropha is also suitable for preventing soil erosion and shifting of sand dunes.  

Biophysical limits: Altitude: 0-500 m, Mean annual temperature: 20-28 deg. C, Mean annual rainfall: 300-1000 mm or more. Soil type: Grows on well-drained soils with good aeration and is well adapted to marginal soils with low nutrient content. On heavy soils, root formation is reduced. Jatropha is a highly adaptable species, but its strength as a crop comes from its ability to grow on very poor and dry sites

JATROPHA IN
AFRICA
Jatropha curcas is unusual among tree crops. Perhaps its most unusual feature is its modular construction. The dry fruits and seeds will remain on the tree for some time, before falling to the ground, especially under dry conditions.

Benefits include but are not limited to:

Oil as raw material:

-         Oil has a very high saponification value and is being extensively used for making soap in some countries.

-         Also, the oil is used as an illuminant as it burns without emitting smoke.

-         Medicinal plant: The latex of Jatropha curcas (VanaErand or RatanJyot) contains an alkaloid known as “jatrophine” which is believed to have anti-cancerous properties.

-         Raw material for dye: The bark of Jatropha curcas (VanaErand or RatanJyot) yields a dark blue dye which is used for colouring cloth, fishing nets and lines.

-         Soil enrichment: Jatropha curcas (VanaErand or RatanJyot) oil cake is rich in nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium and can be used as organic manure.

-         Feed: Jatropha leaves are used as food for the tusser silkworm.

-         In addition to these benefits, scientists at Perdue University in the U.S. and elsewhere are working in the extraction of usable pharmaceutical derivatives from Jatropha Curcas while others are attempting to grow non-toxic plants (Mexico). Preliminary research indicates Jatropha may display certain Anti-Tumor properties, Anti Malarial properties and research is advancing related to HIV/AIDÒs and immune system response enhancement.

-         There are other levels of use that can be exploited. Direct fermentation of seed cake and pulp delivers an organic fertilizer that has a high potential for export to developed countries.

-         It is in the field of Bio Diesel fuel, however, that Jatropha’s properties are the most exciting. At same power output, Jatropha curcas oil specific consumption and efficiencies are higher than those of diesel fuel. Tests conducted show that out of these various vegetable oils including copra, palm, groundnut, cottonseed, rapeseed, soya and sunflower

- the lowest exhaust gas emissions were obtained with copra and Jatropha Curcas crude oil. Over 50% of Africa’s land has the right climate for growing Jatropha

HOW MUCH LAND IN AFRICA IS SUITABLE FOR GROWING JATROPHA?                           

In a survey conducted by Dr. Guy Midgley, Chief Specialist Scientist of the Kirstenbosch Research Center of of the South African National Biodiversity Institute (Cape Town) over 1,080 million hectares land Africa could be termed prime growing regions for Jatropha Curcas on the African continent. A further 580 million hectares could be used making a total of 1,660 million hectares suitable for the growing of Jatropha Curcas. On the map of Africa the dark areas represent prime Jatropha growing regions in Africa. These areas, comprising over 1,080 million hectares, or 10.8 million square kilometers, are ideal because the average annual rainfall exceeds 800 mm, and the minimum temperature of the coldest month is greater than 2 degrees centigrade. The light green areas of the map are areas with average annual rainfall in excess of 300 mm, with the minimum temperature of the coldest month greater than 2 degrees centigrade. These areas, comprising over 580 million hectares, or 5.8 million square kilometers, are also viable regions for growing Jatropha.

HOW MUCH REVENUE PER HECTARE CAN JATROPHA GENERATE PER YEAR?             

Over 50% of Africa’s land has the right climate for growing Jatropha Referring to the table, the yield per hectare per year is up to 8.0 tons of Jatropha seed, which contain over 30% oil. At $320 (US$) per ton, this will translate into sales of Jatropha crude oil of $768 per hectare per year. Of potentially equal or greater value is the yield from Jatropha seeds of glycerin. Up to 7% of Jatropha seeds are made up of glycerin, which sells for up to $2,000 per ton. This translates into glycerin sales of up to $1,120 per year per hectare, or total sales of up to $1,888 per year per hectare. Imagine, if only 3% of the land in Africa that is considered viable land to grow Jatropha was actually planted with Jatropha, with a yield of 8 tons per hectare per year and an oil content of 30% some 119 Million tons of Jatropha crude oil would be produced per year. The glycerin content at 7% of the 119 M tons would produce an additional 8.366 M tons. Glycerin is indeed a valuable by product. In terms of annual revenues, if only 3% of the potential Jatropha growing regions in Africa were planted with Jatropha, based on a Jatropha crude oil price of $320 per ton and with glycerin selling at $2000 per ton a total sales value of $55 billion per year would be generated. 

Processing the crude oil into Bio Diesel would on average in Africa add a further 15% to the sales value. This sales value excludes other byproducts of Jatropha. Most African countries are oil dependent and foreign exchange expenditure would be reduced.

Jatropha farming could be an incredible contribution to economic development in Africa. Feasibility however is problematic due to the difficulty sourcing suitable financing. The two main reasons for failures to source funding are:

1) Land in many countries in
Africa is not owned but leased. This effectively eliminates land being used as collateral by funders. 

2) Start up agriculture projects are generally among the most difficult projects for which to obtain funding. Moreover, financial models show that an assured supply of feed stock is required from a central area to ensure a viable project. Only when this is assured can out growers be considered to supplement the main supply chain. Projects where only marginal land is to be used will be very border line and unlikely to financially succeed. Good yields on marginal land are highly unlikely to be obtained.

understandI I couldn’t believe it. Yesterday I was watering the Jatropha sticks and to my surprise I saw some flowers. The sticks went in the pots in December and now in April they have flowers! They are small but they are flowers.

Every day I transfer pots from the ’seed area’ into the ‘growing plants’ area and I’m surprised to see how much time there is between the first on coming up and the last one till today. At least 2 every day are moved. I have to admit that I’m not sure that all the pots have seeds…….. my gardener put them in for me so I have to trust the fact that he did a good job.

We are enjoying a long Easter weekend with no phone call or visits from Jatropha interested people so I have all the time in the world to read, chat with friends and family and work in my garden…… do I enjoy these 4 days with no work.

My friend Pierre also started his Jatropha blog and he allowed me to copy some texts to this blog. This is the more ‘technical’ information that I was looking for. I hope this will help everyone to understand more and more the wonderfull opportunity that the Jatropha can bring to Afrika. I hope so much this will all work out!

It feels so good to hear all the positive reactions regarding the Jatropha in Gambia. I receive so many telephone calls with questions and people who would like to come and see me and learn more about the Jatropha oil.

Yesterday afternoon a German couple came to visit me for the second time informing me that they talked to the women of the agricultural gardens in Brufut about the use of Jatropha trees to be used as a fence and they promised to start planting it in the beginning of the rainy season.

Also the head teacher of theNew Yundum Lower Basic School in Yundum agreed on fencing the school compound with Jatropha.

In the evening I had a visit from Kawsu Kinteh who is working for Humanity First for many years now. For his work he is travelling through the country 4 times a year and he has all the contacts in the small villages up-country. For me this was a dream come trough: Kemo and me have been talking about finding people like Kawsu and now he is here. The contacts with the small communities is so important, these are the people who we have to motivate to start planting the Jatropha trees. They are the ones who will benefit from the oil at first.

I have to go now, another Jatropha visitor is coming in…….

Today is the exiting big day for starting my first blog on the introduction of Jatropha fuel in the Gambia. The Gambia is a small peaceful country on the West Coast of Africa. This year we live here for 10 years arriving from the Netherlands and we are running a generator business.

A few months ago I was contacted by Mr. Pierre Vanderbeuken, a Belgian post delivery man, environmentalist and a man who likes to help people, who introduced the Jatropha to us as an useful oil for our generator clients. From that moment on a serious Jatropha fever attacked me. I started to study the Jatropha tree believe me: it sounded to good to be true. After many month of research I can only say that it is true and that planting as many Jatropha trees as possible this year will make a tremendous change in the lives of all Gambians who are willing to grow the Jatropha tree.

So then I had to start looking for the tree and see it in real life. I friend of us was passing by and I told him about the Jatropha oil and all the possibilities and the good news was he know a place where they are some trees. He dragged me into his car and off we went for a drive along the ‘highway’. The moment he showed me the trees I know that I have seen them before and even better that I had 2 trees growing on our compound. Coming back home I checked it and YES, they were there and the good thing is that I didn’t plant them myself, nature brought it there.Traditionally the Jatropha tree (Tabanane in Wolf, one of the local languages) is used as a fencing tree because of the poison in the trees it is an easy way to keep cattle out of your compound. These days people are changing into fences made out of blocks so the Jatropha is no longer used.Knowing now we have our own Jatropha tree I could collect the seeds from the trees and to proof to myself and our staff that the Jatropha oil can be used as fuel I had to press the seeds. Luckily we have a well equipped workshop for the generator repairs complete with a hydraulic press. Now all I needed was something to press it in. So here is what I did: I made some holes in the bottom of a small tomato paste can and filled it up with the seeds. I put the can in stainless steel bowl and we pressed the seeds under the hydraulic press.

A nice small amount of oil was pouring out of the seeds. I tried to light it with a match but this didn’t work. I used a small patch of cotton wool into the pot that was absorbing the oil and this was burning very well for about 20 minutes.

But first things fist:

What does the tree look like?

How do the seeds look like in the tree?

and dry:

The next step was to test how the trees will grow from the seeds and by using the sticks. Cutting sticks from existing trees and starting to grow a new one from there is the locally used way of growing new plants or trees. So we attacked our Jatropha trees:

and we planted them in pots

Within a few days the first leaves are growing, we could not believe it. It has been funny to see how some sticks starts developing very quickly and for other it took month but the good thing is, they all started to grow.In the mean time I put some seeds in pots and 8 (!) days later the first small green thingy was spotted. All the seeds planted came to life and I was surprised by the forces of nature again witnessing how fast the seedlings develop was so much power, really impressive.

and see how they look today after 5 months, strong healthy

In the mean time I kept on communicating with Pierre about how to go about promoting the Jatropha in The Gambia. Luckily Pierre has some good contacts with the Gambian Government and he was giving them the news that there is now a very enthusiastic Dutch lady in the country (with a shop!!) and that we would like to know who to contact to move on with our project. Yes, by then we start naming it a contract. The next day I received a phone call from Kemo Ceesey introducing himself as the man of GREC (Gambia Renewable Energy Centre) and told me that he was asked by the government to contact me about plant oil. That same evening we spend hours and hours talking and exchanging ideas. Kemo just returned from studying economics in the UK and he was asked to help them out with GREC. Apparently the centre was not so active at that time. Now you can take my word for it: the centre is alive again with Kemo there.

Together we started to work on a proposal that we had to send to the government to ask for there blessing and also to keep them up to date with our plans.Then I started to work on an information brochure to give people something in their hands to read and to talk about and this was later on transmitted into a website: www.jatropha-fuel.com.

To convince a whole country to start growing a tree that they know but that is no longer part of their daily life is not an easy task but I think one can say that money talks and we growing Jatropha will start making money for people. The nice thing about this project is that we don’t need an organisation or an NGO to make this work. This project is completely in the hand of the Gambian community. Growing a tree from a stick is not difficult and especially the Jatropha tree is an easy one: it’s drought resistant and animals don’t touch it because of the poison in the leaves. I spend the whole day on this blog and now it time for relaxing. I hope you enjoyed the story up to here and that you keep following our project.

WHAT CAN WE ALL DO WITH JATROPHA OIL:

Soap production. The quality of the soap made with Jatropha oil is very good and the natural insecticide in the Jatropha oil will keep mosquito’s away!

Replace candles with oil lamps using the oil you grow yourself , so no more money spend on candels.

Cooking, so no more money spend on charcoal, firewood or gas.

 and last but not least:

Fuel: Jatropha oil can be used as a replacement for diesel for generators and diesel engines on cars, trucks, busses etc.

IMPORTANT NOTE: JATROPHA SHOULD NEVER BE PLANTED ON LAND USED FOR AGRICALTURE, ONLY ON WASTE LAND OR AS FENCES.

……………. and why not along all the roads!………………