Jathropha Curcas

[waldpyk]

In some circles ( i doubt if that's correct english) there is a lot of talk about the growing of Jatropha curcas. The seeds are used - after crushing and refining ) to make biodiesel. In Africa more than 100.000 acres are already planted by one firm D1 oils.

Jatropha can grow well in semi-arid soils and does not compete so much with growing foodstuff .

D1oils recently announced a jv with BP

anybody knows about persons who have some experience with this crop or know places where it's planted ?

thanks.

[nitecm]

anybody knows about persons who have some experience with this crop or know places where it's planted ?

thanks.

We planted it as the fences .It is very easy to growth but produced very few seeds.

[gregb]

The problem is it is extremely labor intensive to harvest.

Grows naturally all over Thailand. Called "Sabu Dum". Just walk around any village in Issan.

I've looked extensively at it, but there does not appear to be an effective way to harvest it mechanically. I thought about a "tree shaker" such as they use for harvesting almonds, but I don't believe it will work after looking at the strength of the tree and how strongly the seeds are attached.

The only way to harvest is manually picking it off the tree. The wages are much too high in Thailand to justify it.