More Info About Jatropha Farming

Government experts say planting jatropha curcas l., locally known as tuba-tuba, is primarily aimed at making idle public and private lands, particularly denuded mountains and forests, more productive. Jatropha farming was deemed to be the answer to rising oil prices by producing in commercial volume a renewable and environment-friendly biofuel (biodiesel). It is also expected to alleviate poverty in the countryside and address ecological concerns. Hence, many farmers are enticed to go into jatropha production.

As a result of massive government campaign to promote it, it is expected that about 1 million hectares of land will be reserved for jatropha production in 2008. However, planting jatropha without knowing all the facts can be a very painful and costly experience, especially for small-scale farmers. While wealthy companies may have started planting jatropha on a massive scale, small farm owners needs to be careful. Knowing the pitfalls can help make planting more worthwhile and successful.

According to Ted Mendoza, Oscar Zamora and Joven Lales, all faculty of Crop Science, College of Agriculture, University of the Philippines at Los Banos, these are some of the basic information that the public should know before they venture into jatropha farming:

Multi-Cropping Scheme

• The long wait for the crop to reach optimum fruiting (five years after planting ) and its low-seed yield require a multiple-cropping scheme. Short-maturing crops and high-value fruit and wood trees should be planted along with jatropha to increase the total farm yield. The scheme is also a risk-minimizing strategy.
• Jatropha is a sun-loving crop. While it grows under the shade, photosynthesis (growth and yield) will be affected in proportion to the degree of shading.
• It should be expected that jatropha yield per plant will decrease under multiple-cropping conditions due to a reduction in space and sunlight. But it is logical for farmers to adopt multiple cropping. If something happens to jatropha and the price does not improve over time, farmers will have some crops to fall back on.
• Jatropha produces a toxin called curcin. Will this substance exert toxic effects on companion crops? Due to this toxin, planting of jatropha was banned in Northern Australia. The Australians are afraid that their cattle will forage on jatropha during the dry months. Besides, they are afraid that it will become weeds later on.

Processing Plant in Question

• Construction of the jatropha processing plant has not started and it will take some time to set up the processing system.
• It is important to have knowledge this early on how to accelerate the optimization of processing raw oil into trans-esterified oil before it can be used as biodiesel oil, and processing of byproducts (press cake and/or glycerol) into high-priced products.
• Wealthy companies investing in large-scale production has more advantage. They plant in huge tracts of idle land that they do not own (leased to them cheaply by government or owned by others) and with very little or no expense.

Jatropha Farming Could Yield 5-7 Tons of Seeds/HA?

• There is not enough evidence that jatropha could give such seed yield as the sugar equivalence is so high, estimated at 14.34 MT/ha. Sugarcane, the highest-yielding energy crop, which produces sugar via the C4 pathway of photosynthesis could only give a maximum of 10 tons of sugar/ha in the Philippines.
• Jatropha fixes carbon dioxide via the C3 path way. It lacks nature’s gift to photosynthesize. Also, since it is supposed to be planted in marginal soils to avoid the concern that it will compete with food crop production it means it will only produce marginal yield.

Jatropha seed at PhP 4/kg?

• One kg of jatropha seed will yield 5.1 kg dried fruit or 9.7 kg fresh (yellow fruit) or an average of 7.41/kg of fruits. This means that a 1 kg seed at PhP 4.00 kg will only fetch a price of PhP 0.54/kg fruit. This is already the net of harvesting, hauling, drying and dehulling the fruits to the seeds.

A Possible PhP 50,000.00/ha Income?

• Estimates reveal the following: If the crop would yield, say, 1,500 kg-seeds/ha/year at PhP 4.00-PhP 5.00/kg = PhP 6,000.00/ha to PhP 7,500.00/ha.
• If the seed price is PhP 33.33/kg. Granting without accepting that the yield would be 5,000/ha, then the gross income will be Php 4.00/kg x 5,000 = PhP20,000.00/ha or PhP 5.00/kg x 5,000 = PhP 25,000/ha.
• The Philippine National Oil Co.-Alternative Fuels Corp. reported that it costs about PhP 50,000 to establish and maintain the crop in two years. The figures they are citing do not match.
• It was claimed that PhP 50,000.00/ha was needed to establish and maintain the crop in two years. The seedling cost alone is already PhP 37,500.00 at PhP 15.00/pc x 2,500 plants per ha. or seed yield should already be 5-7.5 tons/ha.

More Facts

• Jatropha can grow in marginal soils but growth and yield will also be slow and marginal or low. There is a saying “you cannot get something from nothing!”
• For agriculturists, there is no land, which is unfit for food-crop cultivation. Where jatropha grows, mangoes, cashew, siniguelas, duhat, jackfruit, bignay and many other tropical fruits will grow. Moreover, cassava, sweet potato and many legumes will also grow.
• Jatropha can survive dry weather but it will shed off leaves as an adaptive measure, to avoid dying due to excessive loss of water. But then, there is no growth and no fruit set. It will resume growth once the soil is moist again.
• Jatropha grows well under a favorable environment (high soil fertility, adequate moisture and weed management during its early years of growth). But using these lands will compete with lands grown to food security crops, which the proponents try to avoid.
• It was lately observed that fertilized jatropha plants grow well when irrigated but they become vegetative. This means that they do not yield the quantity of fruits that we expect.
• Before buying the produce, the dried tuba-tuba seeds should contain less than 10 percent of the moisture level set by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). If seeds containing more than 10 percent of the moisture level are processed, the diesel will be less effective and might cause engine problems.

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