Jatropha curcas news

24. 10. 2002 Malawi - MAFE Final Report of 2002, concerning Jatropha and Moringa To open or download the report as -.pdf file, click here!

19. 9. 2002
Jatropha and the World Bank   

A Jatropha article was adopted by the Woirld Bank in the section of IK notes (Indigenous Knowledge).
Its title: "Using the Indigenous Knowledge of Jatropha - The use of Jatropha curcas oil as raw material and fuel."

18. 9. 2002
Jatropha and GTZ (German Co-operation)  

In June 2002 GTZ published a brochure  with the title: "Protection by Utilization - Economic Potential of Neglected Breeds and Crops in Rural Development" with two pages concerning Jatropha curcas. To see the pages click here!

15. 9. 2002
Jatropha at the World Summit on Sustainable Development

The use of Jatropha curcas for Integrated Rural Development was presented at the WSSD by the Africa Eco Foundation (AEF).  See press release by Agence France Press (AFP) .pdf-file:  "Humble tree offers Africa a greener future"

11. 7. 2002
Jatropha news from Zambia

After an internal evaluation the knowledge about Jatropha in Southern Province is well disseminated since the Jatropha mission of R. Henning in November 1999, but the use of Jatropha didn't yet get to the roots:

• About 50 % of the farmers know Jatropha and it value;
• About 9.500 m of Jatropha hedges have been planted;
• and approx. 15.000 Jatropha plants exist, newly planted or already existing.

It seems that these figures are very optimistic, because the farmers cannot meet the demand of seeds from neighbouring provinces and from South Africa.

20. 5. 2002
Jatropha workshop in Ethiopia

End of 2002/beginning of 2003 a Jatropha workhop together with a workshop on adding value to agricultural products is planned in Ethiopia. Details about this workhop will be published here as soon as information will be available.

22. 4. 2002    
Jatropha in India by RCDC (Rural Community Action Centre, Tamil Nadu State)

RCAC took the Jatropha activities recently, but they already multiplied 100.000 Jatropha plants, mainly as living fences. Last season 2 tons of seeds were crushed on demonstration puposes, to show the use of the oil as desel substitute. For more see RCAC-page!

14. 4. 2002
Jatropha in South Africa - Participation at WSSD 2002

Africa Eco Foundation’s Biodiesel for Community Development Program has been invited to partake in the WSSD 2002 held in Johannesburg between the 10th August and the 10th September 2002. More at the South Africa page!

2. 4. 2002
Workshop on adding value to agricultural products in Tanzania 

Small food processing enterprises, particularly in rural areas, can help to retain a larger share of the value added in the food chain in rural economies. This can generate employment and higher income.

However, small scale, rural-based food processing is still poorly developed in most African countries. Potential and interested entrepreneurs are facing a number of obstacles on the way to establishing a food processing enterprise.

Besides the processing of edible oils the processing of Jatropha is also part of the programme. See the workshop description:

26. 3. 2002
Jatropha in Tanzania - Ari Monduli Project description  

Overview: In view of the serious negatives impact of the economic crisis on household incomes in Tanzania during the 1980’s and the objectives of poverty reduction a nationwide to improve the economic status of household in poverty is needed. This is a crucial to protect and develop the economic base of resource poor household and communities many of the gains in the social sector will become meaningless and unsustainable.  To read the whole article, please click here!

19. 3. 2002
Frost resistant Jatropha in Brazil

Mr. Roberval Lech Guerreiro from Brazil wrote in the Jatropha guestbook, that there are frost resistant or frost tolerant varieties of Jatropha in Parana state of Brazil. See his contibution Nr. 57 in ther JCL guest book: to go there, click here.

4. 1. 2002
Jatropha in Nepal

The "Kathmadu Post" published an article by Dr. Mick Boswell, Visiting Professor at Tribhuvan University, on the work of RECAST in the past several years: "In a Nut Shell: Wealth, Health, Energy and Environment" 

4. 1. 2002
Jatropha in Papua New Guinea, some remarks concerning the project activities:

The project supports a manufacturer in the development of a press and the project underwrites part of the costs of training people to make soap. Jatropha is one of the oils used but coconut and various tree nuts are also used. Both caustic soda and lye water are used The coconut cake is used for poultry feed. The manufacturer has the incentive to encourage oil processing activities as he then sells more presses. Initial training and demonstrations have resulted in his first orders. The soap has a ready market and it is believed to cure "white spot" which is a fungal growth on the skin and common in PNG. It also is hailed as a laundry soap. To date production is limited due to an assessment of the market. For more information go to the PNG page!

2. 12. 2001 Jatropha in Sudan In Kutum, Northern Darfur province, Jatropha is found and will be planted in form of protection hedges and exploited for income generating purposes. This is a plant of one of the villiges. The seeds are sold as a local medicine against stomach pains. For more information click here.

14. 11. 2001
Jatropha oil as fuel

The Danish Folkecenter´s web page about Pure Plant Oil for Transport is currently being made available in English. Several publications are allready available in English now. The main page about the topic is found here: www.folkecenter.dk\plant-oil\plant-oil_en.htm 

9. 11. 2001
Biofuels: EU plans favour the oil giants, For mre see: Press release of the Folkecenter Denmark

9. 11. 2001
Jatropha oil as fuel, quotation of Rudolph Diesel in 1912

"The use of plant oil as fuel may seem insignificant today. But such products can in time become just as important as kerosene and these coal-tar-products of today." More on use of Plant oil as fuel by Folkecenter Denmark

24. 10. 2001
Jatropha activities by BUN Zimbabwe

The objectives of the project are the utilisation of the Jatropha Curcas Linn (JCL) plant (physic nut in English) as a source of oil for use as fuel for domestic and industrial purposes, and finding other uses of JCL.  BUN originally facilitated the acquisition of three oil expellers (two manual, one motorized) from local manufacturers for processing the seed into oil.  The oil is intended to be used in soap making and to a lesser extent in lamps for lighting purposes, substituting paraffin which is the usual lighting fuel in rural homes.

Lamps to utilize JCL oil as a fuel have been designed which have a lower fuel burning rate than paraffin lamps.  The lamps operating on different wick mechanisms are easy to make. The trial use of JCL cake as an organic fertilizer was successful in 1998, showing the value of the cake as manure. Trials will be conducted to determine the optimum application rate. More on this subject: click here!

Zimbabwean built Sundhara oil expeller Fertilizer test with Jatropha press cake

17. 10. 2001
Jatropha Plantation in Belize

Die 6 ha große Physic Nut-Plantage entwickelt sich nach vorherigem verhältnismäßig zögerlichen Beginn nun zur vollsten Zufriedenheit, vor allem nach der ersten Düngung mit Hühnermist wurde das Wachstum der Pflanzen sichtbar gefördert. Die ersten Nüsse sind reif zum Pflücken, und sind für die weitere Anzucht in der Baumschule vorgesehen. 

Ein Versuch, die Physic-Nut in einem 13 ha großen Wiederaufforstungsgebiet mit einzupflanzen, ist erfolgreich verlaufen. Die im November 99 ausgepflanzten 2000 Setzlinge sind mittlerweile angewachsen und gedeihen bestens. Das gesamte Wiederaufforstungsprojekt wird von dem Forstbotanischen Institut der Universität Freiburg, unter der Leitung von Professor Heinz Rennenberg, betreut und wissenschaftlich begleitet. In der Baumschule stehen weitere 4000 Pflanzen zum Auspflanzen in der nächsten Regenperiode bereit, ihre Höhe hat inzwischen 50 - 100 cm erreicht.  

Finanzierungsanträge für Machbarkeitsstudien über den dauerhaften Anbau und die verschiedenen Nutzungen der Physic-Nut in Belize sind eingereicht an den entsprechenden Stellen. Die Fundings stehen noch aus. 

JANUS ist der erste zertifizierte Bio-Produzent von Belize. Die gesamten projektbezogenen Anpflanzungen einschließlich zweier Orangen-Plantagen von 40 und 20 ha Fläche wurden von einem deutschen Bio-Experten inspiziert und zertifiziert. Unter anderem gehört dazu. Auch die erste Etappe einer Papaya-Plantage mit 2000 Pflanzen, deren Früchte für den Biomarkt in Deutschland vorgesehen sind. Die Zertifizierung erstreckt sich auch auf die Physic Nut-Plantage, was vor allem interessant wird bei der Verwendung für medizinische Zwecke. Weitere Informationen darüber finden Sie unter diesem click!

11. 10. 2001
Plant Oil Cooker working
The test of a plant oil cooker was succesfully demonstratet at the University of Hohenhein, Stuttgart, Germany. It burns rape seed oil with a nice blue and smokeless flame.

The cooker looks almost like an pressure kerosene cooker from India, but the secret, that it works with pure plant oil, lies in the technical details. It will take another year, until it will be ready to be put on the market. Its power is between 1,5 and 2,5 kW. 

An article concerning the  last version of the cooker together with photos will be published soon in this news service. To see some details of the former steps of the development of this plant oil cooker visit the cooker page of this website.

9. 10. 2001
Jatropha expeller produced in Tanzania
The Sundhara type expeller is produced in Tanzania by the Vyahumu Trust in Morogoro with the name "Sayari Oil Expeller". The capacity is 70 kg of Jatropha seed per hour, the residual oil content in the press cake is 10 to 12 %. The price is around 4.000 US$, including motor and base frame. See more details.

7. 10. 2001
Jatropha in Zimbabwe
The Sundhara expeller is built in Zimbabwe by Plumb Engineering. It seems to be of much better Quality than the original from Nepal. The price is around 3.000 US$, including motor and base frame.

The main activities of the Jatropha project in Matoko District f of BUN Zimbabwe have been mostly encouraging the growing of more jatropha hedges since the bottleneck is seed supply constraints, and soapmaking which is popular since it makes reasonable money for those making and selling soap. The project has also demonstrated the use of the cake as manure and it made a clear difference. The project is attempting trials to quantify the optimum application rates for the manure. Further details from Bun Zimbabwe

9. 9. 2001
Jatropha Bio-Diesel Project in Ghana is looking for funds
Anuanom Industrial Projects, a Limited Liability Company, established in 1982 under the company laws (1963) of Ghana, proposes the Exploitation of physic nut (Jatropha curcas L.) in Ghana on commercial scale to obtain bio-diesel from the conversion of the oil from the seeds and organic fertilizer from the press-cake and the fruit compost. For further details see www.jatropha.org/ghana 

8. 9. 2001
South-South Technology Transfer brings Oil Press to Mali
 - and opens up possibilities for plant oil technology in West Africa
In the frame of the Sustainable Energy Advisory Facility, a new oil press has been put on the market in Mali. The effort has been co-ordinated by Mali-Folkecenter, in co-operation with CNESOLER / DNE (the Malian National Centre for Solar & Renewable Energy / National Directorate of Energy), with ACM (Central Workshops of Markala) constructing the press. Based on the efficient, reliable Nepali "Sundhara" press, it can be used to press Jatropha (pourghère) nuts or sesame seed for their oil. It is the first time such a press has been produced in West Africa, and represents a major breakthrough for the future of plant oil technology in the sub-region. See more details in the press release of Mali-Folkecentre, download here as  pdf-file.

16. 8. 2001
Jatropha for export in Egypt

Mr. Ayad Thabet from Egypt produces Jatropha seeds and is interested to sell seeds and/or oil. Everybody interested in buying can contact him under his e-mail address: ayadthabet@hotmail.com 

10. 5. 2001
Jatropha project in Tanzania
A Jatropha project called ARI-MONDULI, Alternative Resources Income for Monduli Women started in Arusha, Tanzania.

The purpose of the project is to help reduce bio-diversity loss while increasing household livelihood security and income of rural women by introducing the Jatropha system through the provision of technical assistance, training, extension, production and marketing so that at the end of the project the result will be new rural industries of soap making and fuel production through which rural women can increase their income.
The project is designed to create sustainable income generating opportunities for rural women in Monduli District. The objective is to strengthen and build local capacity of pastoralist women to engage in Jatropha related activities for the benefit of their families, and district in general. More information see Tanzania page.

20. 3. 2001
Conversion of Car Engines to run with plant Oil
A very interesting website gives all information around the use of plant oil in ordinary diesel engines: http://www.talknet.de/~sthl  and http://www.rerorust.de  and a discussion forum concerning all questions of using plant oil as diesel substitute in cars: http://www.fmso.de (only in German). 

15. 2. 2001
Jatropha Plantation in Belize
The Janus Foundation, in cllaboration with the University of Freiburg, Germany, started a Jatropha plantation in Belize for commercial use. See first results in a short report:
Jatropha Project of Janus Foundation in Belize

26. 1. 2001
UNIDO goes Jatropha
The Environmental Branch of UNIDO, the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, started a programme to disseminate the Jatropha System in 3 French speaking and in 3 English speaking African countries south of the Sahara. Country reports will show the actual situation of Jatropha activities, national and regional workshops are going to coordinate and improve the know-how-transfer. 

16. 10. 2000
University of Hohenheim, Germany
The Institute for Agricultural Engineering in the Tropics and Subtropics, E. Stumpf and W. Mühlbauer, published a paper with the results of the development of a plant oil cooking stove. 
Klick here for the paper.

28. 9. 2000
University of Heidelberg, Germany
The results of a PHD thesis on the toxicity of Jatropha were published:
Toxic activities of the plant Jatropha curcas against intermediate snail hosts and larvae of schistosomes
by Melanie Rug and Andreas Ruppel
Department of Tropical Hygiene and Public Health, University of Heidelberg, Germany
in: Tropical Medicine and International Health, Vol 5, No 6, pp423-430, June 2000

Summary: The aim of studies on plant molluscicides is to complement methods for controlling snails acting as intermediate host of schistosomes. We report on the toxic activity of extracts from Jatropha curcas L. (Euphorbiaceae) against snails transmitting Schistosoma mansoni and S. haematobium. We sudied different extracts' effects on infectious larvae, cercariae and miracidia of S. mansoni. Compared to aqueous extract, methanol extract showed the highest toxicity against all tested organisms with LC100-values of 25 ppm for cercariae and the snail Biomphalaria glabrata and 1 ppm for the snails Bulinus truncatus and B. natalensis. Attenuation of cercariae leading to reduced infectivity in mice could be achieved in concentrations below those exerting acute toxicity. In view of our result and the ongoing exploitation of J. curcas for other purposes, this plant could become an affordable and effective component of an integrated approach to schistosomiasis control.

Keywords: molluscicide, Jatropha curcas, Biomphalaria, Bulinus, Schistosoma, toxicity, attenuation, cercariae, miracidia, nontarget organisms

Correspondence to Dr. M. Rug, Department of Biochemistry, La Trobe University, Bundoora 3083, Australia. E-mail: mrug@bioserve.latrobe.edu.au

24. - 29. 8. 2000
Mali,
Folkecenter Denmark

During these 5 days an Internationla Meeting on "Renewable Energy - A bvehicle for local development - II" had been held in the Folkecenter.

Of special Interest was the Jatropha System, since the Folkecenter Denmark opened a branch in Bamako, Mali, by invitation of the President of Mali, Mr. Konaré.

The activities of The Folkecenter Mali are in the region of Bougouni/Koumantou, about 200 km south of Bamako. This region is very rich in Jatropha hedges.

The address is:

Mali Folkecenter pour les Energies Renouvelables M. Ibrahim Togola, Directeur Régional B.P. E4211 Bamako, Mali Tel: +223 20 06 17 Fax: +223 20 06 18 e-mail: mali.folkecenter@afribone.net.ml internet: http://www.folkecenter.dk

10. 08. 2000
Mali

During a visit to Mali, Preben Maegaard & Ibrahim Togola of the Folkecenter for renewable Energies in Denmark visited Falan, the first village to have installed a Sundhara oil expeller and a plant oil engine to drive the local flower mill. The installation was still working, although project activities ended three years ago.

30. 07. 2000
Belize

The Jatropha Projekt of the Janus Foundation in Belize gets into form.

A 6 ha lage plantation of Jatropha curcas is developing well, especially after a treatment with chicken manure as fertilizer. The first seeds are ready to be picked. They will be used as seeds for further plantation in the tree nursery.

A test to use Jatropha plants within a reforestation project of 13 ha has been successful. 2.000 plants have been planted and are growing very well. The reforestation project is monitored scientifically by the Institute of Forest Botany of the University of Freiburg, Germany. More:

13. 05. 2000
Zimbabwe (from the Jatropha guest book)

Hugh Allen (Hugh_Allen@compuserve.com   / no homepage) wrote:

Are you aware that AT Zimbabwe produces three types of Bielenberg ram presses in Zimbabwe, and has manufactured and sold over 3,000 units in the last 5 years? This is more than anyone else by a long shot. They are made by RAM (Pty) Ltd - RAM stands for Rural Associated manufacturers and its address is P.O. Box BE 11, Belvedere, Harare, and their e-mail is rampt@harare.iafrica.com . Tel 263 4 305471. They make the JH32, the BP30 and the Causeway "Hela" ram presses, as well as peanut-butter mills and high-capacity treadle pumps. I really think they should get a mention in your manual.

Also, where is ApproTEC who, along with RAM's "Hela" produce just about the best and most solid press known to man, in Kenya, where they have sold about 1,000 units? Thjeir contact is: approtec@nbnet.co.ke  

15. 02. 2000
Zambia

Report of Jatropha mission to Zambia

3 Reports have been written about Jatropha in Zambia:

• A mission report to the German Technical Cooperation GTZ: "The Jatropha System in Zambia" (76 p)
• "The Jatropha Booklet", a guide to the Jatropha System and its dissemination (24 p)
• "The Jatropha manual", a guide to the integrated exploitation of the Jatropha plant in Zambia (10 p)

These reports and other information on The Jatropha System may be ordered from:

or directly from bagani GbR, Reinhard Henning, Rothkreuz 11, D-88138 Weissensberg, Germany. e-mail: henning@bagani.de 

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