Jatropha likes good soil, preferably humid!

A few days ago  when I passed by the town of Boni, near Houndé (in the west, along the highway to Bobo Dioulasso)  I asked a farmer friend about his Jatropha cultivation. Like many other farmers in the area he took up an offer to start this crop nearly a year ago. The plant seeds produce a very thin oil which is suitable for fuel. He told me: “Never talk to me again about Jatropha, all my plants are about to die.”

  However, there are numerous press reports hailing Jatropha as a good source of biofuel. One article states that it is a “biofuel that has come out of the desert”. A miraculous plant “which grows on arid land, is easy to cultivate and produces an oil of enviable quality ” … Growing this plant would not compete with vital food crops for the simple reason that its main advantage is that it can thrive on semi-arid soil.  Can we really be sure?

My friend’s answer made me pursue the search further. I came upon a study on bio-fuels in Senegal by two NGOs, Wetlands International and Actionaid Sénégal, which commands some circumspection. According to Sidi Bâ, an official of the CNCR (Cadre national de concertation des ruraux), a national farmers’ co-ordinating agency  “as described in the national programme, the cultivation of Jatropha for bio-fuel is a real threat to food crops”.

“To grow Jatropha instead of millet, maize or groundnuts amounts to telling farmers: “go ahead – and die tomorrow”, Mr Bâ adds.  

The threat is due to the fact that according to experts  Jatropha was to be grown on impoverished and,  in particular,  saline soil. But instead it now occupies arable land in the north and the south of the country, precisely  the areas which account for essential food production .

“Jatropha can grow anywhere, but the recommendation is to plant it in humid soil in order to have it produce oil seeds.  Therefore”, says Mr Pape Mawade of Wetland International, “the very farmland which is used for agriculture is much sought after for Jatropha.”

In the Wikipedia encyclopedia we also read: “at the beginning of the 1990ies, experimental cultivation on 2000 hectares of land in Nicaragua did not live up to its promises and instead proved disastrous. It only yielded 200 litres per hectare (instead of the  expected 2 000 litres). In spite of the fact that the plant grows well  in arid land, the production falls sharply when the supply of water and the quality of the soil are insufficient. Therefore there is pressure on the choice of cultivation mode: for optimal yields, it is necessary to use fertile soil and irrigate regularly…”

Jatropha has a good deal in common with a milk cow. If you want a healthy cow which produces a lot of milk, you have to give it wholesome  fodder in large quantities. If you want your Jatropha to grow quickly and produce a lot of seeds (and consequently a lot of oil), you must plant it in good and humid soil.

We must stop pretending that Jatropha does not enter into competition with food crops.

Koudougou, March 21^st 2009

Maurice Oudet

Director, SEDELAN