Grow Jatropha: Guerrilla Gardeners Grow Jatropha in The Dutch Caribbean

This is a great video showing how they grow Jatropha Dutch Caribbean Style! The main problem trying to grow jatropha in the Caribbean seems to be the iguana's eating the leaves; perhaps trying to grow the toxic veriety of Jatropha Curacus Lin would prevent jatropha plant molestation by Iguana's!

Growing Jatropha at Banda Abou Curacao in the Dutch Antilles looks like alot of fun however I would not class this as growing a jatropha plantation, more like a guerrilla gardening movement :)

Grow Jatropha: Indian Project To Grow Jatropha Curcas in Chhattisgarh

Here is an Indian project to grow Jatropha Curcas Lin to produce a biofuel crop most plantations who grow jatropha for biodiesel production use a monoculture. In this case if the Indian's were to grow Jatropha intercropped with Gensing they would have an additional income in addition to growing jatropha for biofuel.

The Jatropha growing on the Sandarkera plantation in India looks healthy with each jatropha plant easily having 2.5 square meters in which to grow. Both Genging and Watermelon could grow in between these jatropha rows to create food security and income as well as biodiesel on this jatropha plantation in India.

There is a funny bit where animals are walking where the jatropha is growing and it is captioned with "Jatropha Is No Longer Effective Hedge" Jatropha plants need to be planted about 30cm away from each other so that they become a hedge of course animals will walk through the plantation.

In Africa there is some debate as to whether jatropha plants should grow in 4 meter square patches to allow for elephant migration through the jatropha growing on the plantation without damage.

Grow Jatropha: Growing Jatropha in Central Vietnam Quang Tri Province

Here you can see jatropha being grown in the Quang Tri Province of Vietnam, it is quite funny watching the American "Investor" who can't say Jatropha - When you see the Jatropha Plantation which is sandy soil in terraces the plants are maybe one to two months old and struggling.

The video ends on more mature jatropha trees grown for maybe four years the straggly jatropha plants grown on the sandy terraces will be a long way from producing enough jatropha seeds to make biodiesel from the crude jatropha oil.

Cambodia and Vietnam are both good places to grow jatropha because of the soil conditions you can see in the video and the humid climate. Growing Jatropha with Palm Tree's on the terraces in the video would provide the jatropha with the shade that it likes to grow in.

You can see the young Jatropha plants growing in the video look wilted from too much sun and growth is poor. Jatropha should always be grown in the shade for best results. Growing stronger plants produces seeds higher in oil content. The more crude jatropha oil in the seeds the more biofuel you can make from the Jatropha you grow!

 

Grow Jatropha: Growing Jatropha In Kenya Is Supportted By Locals

These Villagers in Kenya are showing support for growing jatropha as a biofuel feedstock in Africa. They must have grown some jatropha at some point because they wave lots of it about.

The video does not show any actual plants growing and I have no idea what the Kenyan man at the end of the video is saying about growing jatropha, I wish him well with his Jatropha plantation in Kenya! I am sure it would be fun to teach this jatropha farmer and his branch waving friends how to make biodiesel from jatropha oil. If the Kenyan people were as enthusiastic about pressing the seeds as they are about waving the branches I am sure their jatropha farmers will have very successful biofuel plantations.

Grow Jatropha: Extraction of Crude Jatropha Oil By Hand With Nut Press

The main reason to grow Jatropha Curacus Lin is for the physic nut sometimes called the Barbados Nut because it produces a green oil that is suitable for use in diesel engines and Crude Jatropha Oil can be further refined into Bio Aviation fuel. Crude Jatropha Oil can be extracted from the jatropha seed using a simple nut press like this. it is the same sort of worm gear nut press that can be used to extract oil for biofuel from sunflower seeds or any other biofuel feedstock crop. Extraction oil from seeds is not a new idea!

Using a simple nut press to extract crude jatropha oil is very easy for a local community to do in this way and does not require expensive and heavy machinery to extract the crude jatropha oil from the jatropha seed. Seed husks which still contain residual jatropha oil are a very rich fertilizer and can be used to fertilize the jatropha plantation after the harvest.

Once the crude jatropha oil has been extracted using the nut press it would be very easy for the community to refine the jatropha oil into a methyl ester biodiesel or use the jatropha oil for cooking without further refining, this would make the carbon footprint of the jatropha plantation lower as sustainable energy becomes more available to the community.