BIOFUELS LEADING TO LAND GRAB AROUND THE WORLD...

Biofuels and ‘Land Grabs’ in Poor Nations

By James Kanter

http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/12/biofuels-and-land-grabs-in-poor-nations/

12 June, 2009

Current protections against land-grabs in developing countries are “absolutely insufficient,” said Olivier De Schutter, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on the right to food.

Olivier De Schutter, the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to food, warned on Thursday that biofuels remain an important driver behind big land acquisitions and land leases in poor countries that jeopardize local inhabitants’ food security.

About one-fifth of the activities that Mr. De Schutter deemed as “land grabs” – often backed by hedge funds or sovereign wealth funds – are projects in parts of Africa and Asia aimed at growing crops to make feedstock for biofuels.

“There still is a vast market for first-generation agrofuels,” said Mr. De Schutter, who added that he considered the safeguards adopted by the European Union in 2008 “absolutely insufficient to monitor to the impacts on the countries concerned by shifts in land use for agrofuels production.”

Next-generation biofuels made from plants that would reduce competition with food crops were still in development and so the existing incentives for biofuels in the United States and European Union remained a cause for grave concern, he said.

These newer fuels “were too distant for the moment to say that we can continue to insist on the use of agrofuels for transport.”

He also underlined that second-generation agrofuels “will be hugely water consuming.”

Mr. De Schutter was in Brussels to propose a set of principles and measures to curb “land grabbing” by investors seeking agricultural lands for major crops, like soy and jatropha, which are often exported to produce food for rich-world consumers or to produce biofuels.

He said some large-scale land investments provided much-needed new infrastructure and employment.

But he said that new rules were needed because some investments were leading to evictions, sudden losses of farm and grazing lands, and greater competition for water resources.

Mr. De Schutter was appointed to his post in 2008 by the U.N. Human Rights Council.

JATROPHA: "MIRACLE DROUGHT RESISTANT" PLANT REQUIRES 20,000 LITERS OF WATER TO PRODUCE 1 L OF BIODIESEL

Miracle Biofuel Plant Jatropha Reveals Its Achilles Heel

A single liter of jatropha biodiesel requires a whopping 20,000 liters of water to grow, say researchers at the Netherlands’ University of Twente.

By Chris Morrison

source: http://industry.bnet.com/energy/10001401/miracle-biofuel-plant-jatropha-reveals-its-achilles-heel/

June 9th, 2009

Jatropha, a hardy, drought resistant plant that grows oil-heavy fruit, was supposed to be the salvation of the biodiesel industry. The plant, which was targeted for an $80 million pilot project by BP and D1 Oils, can grow on marginal lands that crops don’t like. It tends to favor a land type that is common in developing countries like China and India, as well as many African nations, giving them a much-needed edge. Its fruit can be up to 40 percent oil, making it an excellent energy source.

But jatropha is also new to cultivation, and planters are still figuring out how to effectively grow the plant. Predictably enough, they’re finding out that rosy initial estimates on how well the plant would do may have been vastly overblown. The biggest problem by far is the amount of water the plant consumes, according to a study covered in MIT’s Technology Review.

A single liter of jatropha biodiesel requires a whopping 20,000 liters of water to grow, say researchers at the Netherlands’ University of Twente. That’s more than canola, corn, soybeans or sugarcane — more, in fact, than any commonly used biofuel crop. The two closest, canola and soybeans, require about 14,000 liters each.

The irony of jatropha’s water needs is considerable, since the plant is supposed to be a godsend for arid land that doesn’t get much rainfall. The report suggests that jatropha does just fine without much water, but only produces bumper crops when it has plenty to drink, much like any other plant.

How much of a problem will the water requirements be for the burgeoning jatropha industry? Possibly not as much as it might seem at first glance. Irrigation of dry land is practiced around the world at massive scales, so the barrier is not technical. However, sucking up all the water available in a locality will pit jatropha against food crops and people, putting it in the same boat as ethanol from corn.

Yields from jatropha may also be only a quarter of some estimates, so the economics of the plant may not be as incredible as first thought, either. What those are, exactly, will be revealed only later by the success of a first generation of companies like Galten Biofuels, Jatoil and the BP partnership.

And finally, there’s also hope that jatropha will mature into a better biofuel producer. Any plant new to cultivation takes a period of time before it reaches an optimum tame form, and jatropha has only been in use for a few years. There are also companies like SG Biofuels, covered here a couple months ago, that are performing gene research on jatropha in hopes of extending its range and improving its yield.

The complete report can de downloaded at the following link:

Download PNAS-2009-Gerbens-Leenes-0812619106.pdf

JATROPHA: "MIRACLE" BIOFUEL CROP OR THREAT TO FOOD SECURITY...?

Jatropha has been hailed as the "miracle" biofuel crop which can be grown on so-called "marginal lands" without agricultural chemicals ( fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides, etc.) and without water.

However, seceral studies, reports and field-experiences have clearly demonstrated that jatropha cannot profitably be grown in so-called "marginal" land, without inputs such as water, fertilisers, etc., and that to be economically profitable, jatropha would have to be grown on FERTILE lands using irrigation and costly fertilizers, thus directly compromising food security and trapping both farmers and producing countries in yet another monoculture vicious trap cycle of debt and poverty while destroying the environnement through the usage of chemical fertilisers and GMO's.

My main concern over using Jatropha as a biofuel, is the serious threat it poses to both food security in so-called Third World countries, where millions of hectares of fertile land are being diverted for the production of jatropha at the expense of food crops.

Please see the latest released report By Friends of the Earth at the following link:

http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/jatropha_wonder_crop.pdf

JATROPHA: DROUGHT-RESISTANT PLANT?

1 LITER OF BIODIESEL MADE FROM JATROPHA REQUIRES 20,000 LITERS OF WATER!

source: http://www.greenbang.com/one-litre-of-biodiesel-costs-14000-litres-of-water/

June 3rd, 2009

Biofuels carry a heavy water footprint, although the size of that print varies widely from crop to crop, according to new research from the Netherlands’ University of Twente.

Researchers at the university analysed 13 crops to determine the optimal production regions for each based on water consumption and climate date. Their goal was to make it easier to prevent biomass cultivation from jeopardising food production in regions where water is already in short supply.

The researchers found, for example, that it takes an average of 14,000 litres of water to produce one litre of biodiesel from rapeseed or soya. However, the water footprint for rapeseed in Western Europe is significantly smaller than in Asia. For soya, India has a large water footprint, while the figures for countries such as Italy and Paraguay are more favourable.

Jatropha, which is increasingly used for biomass production, has an even less favourable water footprint of 20,000 litres of water on average for one litre of biodiesel.

Using whole plants to generate bioelectricity, on the other hand, requires a smaller water footprint than using crops to make biofuels. Even then, however, crop footprints vary. For example, the researchers found that, when used for bioelectricity, sugar beet has by far the smallest water footprint, while jatropha is 10 times less water-efficient.

JATROPHA: BIOFUEL MIRACLE CROP?

The Blunder Crop: a Biofuels Digest special report on jatropha biofuels development

by Jim Lane

source: http://biofuelsdigest.com/blog2/2009/03/24/the-blunder-crop-the-blunder-crop-a-biofuels-digest-special-report-on-jatropha-biofuels-development-part-ii/

March 24, 2009

Willie Lester and Rodney Brown penned the song "I Can't Win for Losing", but it's Lester Brown's critique of biofuels that comes to mind when considering the hopes for, and stumbles of, the jatropha industry.

Kirk Haney tells me there’s nothing to worry about with his jatropha biofuels company, SG Biofuels, and I believe him. A successful practioner of sustainable forestry in Central America via the teak trade, Haney has assembled a top-tier team for SG and is doing the soil testing and the extensive planning — the “hard, dirty work of progress”, to borrow Rob Elam’s memorable phrase — that will turn jatropha dreams into actual viable industry.

He’s joined by a handful of jatropha developers like Mission New Energy and GEM that are getting it done, making it happen.

Elsewhere, things would be going great if they weren’t going so badly.

Well-organized efforts are in the minority. More typical: back-of-the-comic book jatropha seed and seedling marketers that prey on the hopes and fears of cash-strapped farmers; the farcical disaster that has developed in Myanmar’s national biofuels project; and a number of non-profits (some well-organized, some dreamy) running around in Haiti trying to save the country from deforestation with projects as small as one designed to provide heat and power to a local bakery.

Jatropha is realizing less than half its projected yields in most projects, and less than a third of optimistic estimates that led jatropha to be labeled “the wonder crop”.

The problem? Countries like Myanmar that planned 8 million acres of jatropha and then forgot about harvesting technology, crushers, biodiesel processing or anything approaching a distribution system. The Result? Jatropha seeds rotting in Myanmar’s fields. The cure? Getting back to sound planning, extensive soil testing, and excellence in project management.

Here are some updates from the field. It’s a fairly shocking portrait of progress inhibited.

Main factors?

1. Hype that cites jatropha’s “poor soil” tolerance and high yields without noting that jatropha survives, but hardly thrives, in very poor soil.
2. The lack of mechanical harvesters.
3. The lack of adequate soil testing in the rush to plant.

A world with half as many seedlings and twice the number of harvesters and crushers would a better world be.

Here are some reports from the frontiers:

China.

In 2007, China Confidential said that China aimed to have 13 million jatropha hectares planted, with a yield of 0.4 tonnes of oil per hectare on an ongoing basis. As of today, just a handful of plantations in fact exist.

D1 Oils.

It started with gigantic promise, and remains jatropha’s biggest project developer and biggest hope. However, D1’s operations in Africa have proven disappointing, with a regional management shakeup announced last September and an annoucnement that “the planting position will continue to be kept under review.”

Former chairman Lord Oxburgh told National Geographic that initial production would commence in 2007. Former CEO Elliot Mannis later predicted to Reuters in January of 2008 that the first significant harvests of jatropha would be in the second half of 2008, but only 1,000 tonnes of oil were harvested in all. That’s roughly enough for 300,000 gallons of biodiesel.

Overall the company is reporting 257,370 hectares under cultivation, the majority in northeast India in a JV with tea giants Williamson Magor. In January 2008, the company told Reuters it had 202,000 hectares under cultivation (which later was trimmed in company stock filings to 192,016 as of March 2008). The company predicted in September 2008 that it would increase its plantations to 300,000 hectares by year end but confirmed in February that total planting had not increased since the September update.

The growth rates suggest it will be some time before the company realizes its overall goal of planting 2.5 million acres (1.01 million hectares), and to this reporter there appears to be persistent difficulties in projecting the timing and volume of production.

Overall, the company appears to be bearing down into the realities of the business, but the numbers do not suggest robust yields are in sight for the near-term. The departure of CEO Mannis and chairman Lord Oxburgh in a boardroom coup late last year was suggestive of troubles at D1, although sources have pointed as much to troubles with the company’s UK-based biodiesel processing operations, which were closed.

Variations in yield estimates.

It’s understandable that crop yields vary based on inputs, climate and the skill of the farmer. But, even allowing for that, jatropha yields forecasts seem to me as scattered as atoms after a supernova.

Here is a selection.

Frost & Sullivan (2007): 1-5 tonnes of oil per hectare. Baif.org: Cited 8-10 tons of seeds per hectare sourced to “enthusiastic promoters”. Biofuels Revolution: Cited 10 tons of seeds in a report. Here’s an article that said that actual yields were one fifth of government estimates - at 1.5 to 2 tons per acre.

Here’s another at 10 - 12 tons per hectare of seeds. Here’s one that covers all the angles with a stupendously un-useful range of 0.5- 12 tons per hectare. Here’s the winner of the optimist award: The Philippine National Oil Company weighing in with a forecast of a minimum of 15 tons per hectare on the fifth year. A report distributed by (but not from) UNCTAD cites 13 tons per hectare.

Whew! That’s 0.5 to 15 in about 10 seconds. Sounds more like an accelerating Jaguar than jatropha yield data. But there you are.

India

In the South Asian heartland of jatropha, Chahattisgarh state takes the absolute cake for predictions of wealth that have not come true. Asia Clean Tech reported in 2007 that the state-owned Indian Oil Co has partnered with Chhattisgarh state to deploy jatropha. ‘No less than 500,000 people will get jobs across the state during the next 4-5 years due to these jatropha plantations,’ a senior Creda official was quoted in the ‘07 report. The JV was reported to produce up to 300 tons of biofuel per day within 4-5 years. That’s about 33 Mgy of fuel.

How does that employ 500,000 people? That’s 66 gallons - or about $150, per worker. At yields of 250 gallons per acre, that’s four workers an acre. Even in one of the poorest states in India, that’s a poor excuse for economic development and a ruinous, blundering exaggeration that is a standout reason that jatropha has earned the nickname “the wonder blunder crop”.

Myanmar

Moving from comically far-off-predictions to another dimension of hype that would be funny if it were not tragic, let’s consider the case of Myanmar.

As reported previously in the Digest, the Myanmar government set out in 2006 to cultivate 8 million acres of jatropha, in hopes of making the country more energy self-sufficient and potentially develop an export trade in jatropha oil.

The program was handed down to individual states in the form of a dictat: 500,000 acres or more per state. Individual farmers and even city dwellers were dragged into forced-planting campaigns to meet planting goals. Supervision of planting was handed off to the Army, which detailed numerous young, non-commissioned officers to supervise the work. Planting took place in plantation-style field, in hedges and home gardens.

What was missing? Besides soil testing, uh, just a few things. Like a harvesting plan. According to a Time magazine report, “My friend dutifully tends his jatropha trees and then watches the seeds fall on the ground and die. In his case, the spindly physic-nut shrubs in his garden are supplanting a fragrant frangipani tree or colorful hibiscus bush. But elsewhere in Burma — a nation where UNICEF estimates malnutrition afflicts one-third of children — farmers have had to put aside valuable crop land for a wasted plant.”

Haiti

Beyond the tragedy of Myanmar there is the deeper tragedy of Haiti, a land stripped of economic opportunity as well as forest cover.

Kathleen Robbins has been active down in Haiti for quite some time putting together a jatropha cultivation education program, next to the UN Model School. Other NGOs, it appears, have been more focused on planting than educating. According to MargeuriteLaurent.com, at least three dozen projects are active in Haiti now. One is so small it’s aim is to support a single Haitian bakery with power through cultivation of jatropha as an oil source. Would not these incredibly well-meaning NGOs do better to band together to achieve some economies of scale?

Voodoo economics

Apparently in Haiti, jatropha is used in voodoo rituals. That seems right, because the cultivation of the plant has been beset, and seems to remain so, with voodoo economics and announcements of yields and harvest potentials that are way ahead of science.

The workers actually putting jatropha seedlings in the ground and harvesting the yields, who face the daily disconnect between jatropha reality and jatropha dreams, can use all the magic they can get.

JATROPHA BIOFUEL FAILS IN INDIA

FAIL! – India’s Hyped Jatropha Biodiesel Program Does Not Deliver.

By Prashanth Vishwanathan/ Reuters

Source: http://yehhailife.wordpress.com/2009/05/15/fail-indias-hyped-jatropha-biodiesel-program-does-not-deliver/

May 15, 2009

In 2005, the seed of the Jatropha Curcas tree, the miracle biofuel plant native to Central America, was supposed to be the panacea for India’s energy needs. Fast forward four years and the results are in – Fail!

Less than half of the 290 million Jatropha saplings on 3.9 million acres have survived. $332 million dollars have been invested. Reports of cattle poisoned from eating the leaves, and impact on farmers forced to replace food crop with Jatropha crops is still being ‘assessed.’

Prof R. R. Shah told the National, ““There is no yield,” he says. “The literature said that with dry land, after four years’ growth, you can get a yield of 1kg per plant. For us, it is hardly 200g per plant.” The other discovery being that Jatropha needs fertilizer, water and good management, just like any other biofuel plant. The result is it is three times more expensive than crude oil.

These were the promises – it would grow on ‘wastelands’, was drought resistant so didn’t need too much water, and wouldn’t need pesticides or fertilizers like food crops. It would become a reliable source of income for India’s poor rural farmers, providing energy self-sufficiency, while reducing fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions The effort was cheerled by none other than Dr. Abdul Kalam, India’s former President who claimed in 2006 that over 30 million hectares of Indian wasteland would be suitable for Jatropha growth.

Many are questioning the logic of such widescale implementation without better studies. As the specter of more vehicles and energy consumption looms over India and the world, an alternative fuel solution must be found. Its left to be seen whether the Pongamia Tree, native to India, will deliver better results.

BIOFUEL HOAX: JATROPHA AND LAND GRAB

source: http://www.navdanya.org/news/5dec07.htm

Across the world biofuels/Agro fuels are being promoted as an alternative to fossil fuels and an answer to climate change. They have however started to generate intense controversy by leading to land conflicts and rise in food prices.

Navdanya released its study on the social, economic and ecological impact of Jatropha cultivation for bio diesel in India "Biofuel Hoax: Jatropha and Land Grab" at a press conference on 27th of November 2007. The study authored by Dr Vandana Shiva and Manu Sankar is based on field work in the three states of Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.

India plans to cultivate Jatropha in 11 million hectares. In a land starved country this diversion of land has serious consequences for rural livelihoods and rural eco systems. The Companies involved in the gold rush of Jatropha in India are D1 Oil, Godrej Agrovet Ltd, Tata Motors, Indian Oil Corporation, Kochi Refineries Ltd, Biohealthcare Pvt, The southern online Biotechnologies Ltd, Jain irrigation System Ltd, Natural Bioenergy Ltd and Reliance Energy Ltd.

In Chhattisgarh, a predominantly tribal belt, agricultural crops of tribals have been destroyed to plant Jatropha. To promote jatropha plantations, the tribals are being denied their inherent right to make decisions about land use for which the local community (Gram Sabha) is the highest competent authority . This is a violation of the legal recognition of collective rights and Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996. The study also has details of the villages in Chhattisgarh which have faced land conflicts because the people have opposed the cultivation of Jatropha plantations.

Chhattisgarh is the center of diversity of rice and according to Dr Richaria, India's eminent rice scientist it was the source of more than two hundred thousand rice varieties. Planting Jatropha monocultures in place of the indigenous diversity of tribal crop lands is not just a destruction of the food security and livelihood of the tribals, it is also a threat to India's biodiversity.

Two Biaga tribals whose crops have been damaged by the Government for Jatropha cultivation were present at the press conference.

Santhoshi, from Daiharibagh village, Kota block of Bilaspur district, " the forest department forcefully planted Jatropha on our paddy land. They told us if u don't allow us to plant jatropha you will go to jail. We have send our plea petitions to the chief minister, District collector and BDO but of no avail. At last we had to uproot the jatropha plants that were planted in our agricultural land".

Dharam singh, from Pandripani village, from Kota block of Bilaspur village, said "the gram sabha in my village did not give the permission for the forest department to plant Jatrophas in our agricultural land. But they planted it by force and issued court notices to 10 people including me to vacate our agricultural land".

Instead of recognizing the rights of the tribals as required by the PESA Act of 1996 and the recognition of the Forest dwellers Rights Act of 2004, the government is using jatropha plantations to undo the constitutional safeguards that tribals have to their right to land and livelihood.

Jatropha is not just leading to Land grab, it is also leading to Biopiracy

Dr Sunil Puri, who used to be the head of Department of Forestry at the Indira Gandhi Agricultural University in Raipur had illegally taken 18 elite varieties of Jatropha from the University collection. A week later he joined the company. Local protests followed and a report by a state government inquiry into the affairs concluded that Dr puri, and D1, by accepting the plants without the necessary authority, had breached India's new biodiversity laws, designed to protect the country's bio resources from foreign exploitation.

In Vidarbha, Maharashtra the company involved does contract farming with the farmers . They have taken advantage of the failure of Bt cotton crops and have lured farmers into cultivation of Jatropha. The corporates have been successful in inducing the farmers into Jatropha on the false promise that the plantations will give them immense returns after three years. The Government is also providing subsidies to the farmers who plant Jatropha. Govind Chithuji Jungare, a farmer of Buldana who shifted from cotton to Jatropha has committed suicide in April 2007, because of the Government's inability to provide with the promised subsidy.

Rajasthan, a desert state is also seeing the destruction of village commons and grazing lands (referred to as "Wastelands" in colonial revenue categories) by the imposition of Jatropha plantations. On 7th of May 2007, The Government of Rajasthan passed rules under its powers conferred by Section 261 of the Land Revenue Act of 1956 to create a new law called "The Rajasthan Land Revenue (Allotment of wasteland for biofuel plantation and biofuel based industrial and processing unit) Rules, 2007". The Rules allow 1000 ha - 5000 ha of village common lands (called "wastelands" in the colonial revenue category) to be transferred for 20 years from the village community to biofuel industry. The land allocation is for biofuel plantations, especially Jatropha, and biofuel based industry and processing units.

Village community pastures are the common resources in Rajasthan, having potential for equitable accessibility to all classes for the rural population. Rajasthan has 1.94 million hectares of common pasture lands and more than 70% of the total geographical area are under the common lands. The Jatropha cultivation is severely limiting the ability of the commons to support rural livelihoods comprehensively and thereby harming the ecological services they render. Livestock is the major source of livelihood for the poor and they are heavily dependent on the common pastures for the grazing of their cattle. By planting Jatropha the fodder availability of the cattle will be directly affected.

The destruction of the livelihoods of pastoralists and livestock herders such as Gujjars have already led to major riots in Rajasthan. The transfer of commons and grazing lands from providing fodder to livestock in the local economy to providing fuel for automobiles of the rich will further erode rural livelihoods and increase social tensions.

The poor live in a biomass / biodiversity based economy. Diversion of land to industrial biofuels will also divert biodiversity / organic matter from basic needs of the poor and maintenance of ecological cycles. It will create total destitution and collapse of rural agro-ecosystems as biodiversity and water are diverted by industry for biofuel.

Dr Vandana Shiva, Director, Navdanya has described the mad rush for Jatropha plantations, a recipe for ecological, economic and social disaster.

RECOMMENDATION

1. The industrial biofuel policy is not a solution to the climate crisis or an answer to peak oil. The massive infrastructure of fossil fuel based production and transportation systems cannot be maintained by converting food to fuel, and plants to oil for cars. The heavy infrastructure of automobiles and power generation needs to be adapted to the limits of the planet. The planet should not be further plundered and the poor should not be further burdened to uphold a non-sustainable system for a few years more.

2. The village commons need to be protected by and for local communities - to provide for their basic needs of food, fodder, fuel, medicine etc. Rejuvenation of village commons through biodiversity that maximizes production for local needs should be immediately taken up under rural employment guarantee schemes and environmental programmes. Their transfer to industry for jatropha or other plantations must be immediately stopped to avert ecological and economic catastrophe. The Rajasthan biofuel law must be withdrawn immediately. The colonial policy of characterising village commons as "wastelands" must be immediately revised.

3. To protect rural livelihoods and food and energy security of the rural poor, agriculture policy must shift from chemical / industrial / corporate farming to biodiversity ecological farming. The village commons play a vital role in providing inputs to the agrarian economy. Integrated and sustainable sylvi-agri-pastoral systems need to be protected and strengthened to adapt to climate change. Decentralised food and energy systems are vital to enhance climate resilience and reduce climate impact. Land must be used for the food and energy needs of the people, not the fuel demands of industry. The biological produce of commons must first go to meet local needs.

4. Decisions about the use of Village commons should be made by the village community (Gram Sabha). In the Scheduled areas anyways this is a constitutional obligation. Local communities should be given absolute rights over the land use decisions for enhancing their livelihood and ecological security.

5. Instead of displacing tribals by imposing jatropha plantations the government should implement the new law recognizing the rights of the tribals.

6. Legal action needs to be taken to stop jatropha biopiracy. D1 company should immediately return the stolen germ plasm to India.

To read the entire report on biofuels, please click on the title link above.

For more information, please contact

Navdanya
A-60 Hauz Khas, New Delhi – 110 016
TeL: 2653 2124 / 2696 8077
navslow@yahoo.co.in, vshiva@vsnl.com

JATROPHA BIOFUEL: FAILED EXPERIENCE IN INDIA

Jatropha seeds yield little hope for India’s oil dream

By Richard Orange

Source: http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090511/BUSINESS/705119944/-1/SPORT

Jatropha plants will grow in wasteland, but to get a high yield the plants must be well cared for, says Suman Jha, a researcher. Prashanth Vishwanathan/ Reuters

Back in 2005, Professor RR Shah sent a team to Navsari Agricultural University’s most parched and desolate strip of land, a farm in the Vyasa district of India’s northern state of Gujarat. Their instructions: to set up a model farm for jatropha, the hardy shrub with oil-rich seeds that were then emerging as one of the most promising alternatives to crude oil.

At the time, jatropha’s promise seemed boundless. APJ Abdul Kalam, the president, even used his presidential address that year to extol its virtues. Jatropha can survive in the most arid wastelands, the story went, so vast barren swathes of India could be put to productive use. It is inedible so it would not cause a backlash by competing with food crops. The government announced a scheme to plant 13 million hectares, enough to generate nearly 500,000 barrels of jatropha oil per day.

But as Prof Shah’s project in Vyasa nears its end this month, the dean of agribusiness at Navsari is sceptical. “There is no yield,” he says. “The literature said that with dry land, after four years’ growth, you can get a yield of 1kg per plant. For us, it is hardly 200g per plant.”

Navsari is not alone. As the findings come in from pilot schemes at 22 different agricultural colleges across India, the central claim of jatropha’s evangelists, that it thrives in barren land, is looking threadbare.

And that is even before you study the difficulties jatropha faces competing with crude oil at today’s prices. According to Dharmendra Parekh, the managing director of Aditya Aromatics, a Jatropha pioneer in Gujarat, oil from the shrub now costs more than 100 rupees (Dh7.5) per litre to produce, compared with 34 rupees per litre for normal diesel.

Suman Jha, a researcher on Prof Shah’s team, shows me patches where he is growing the plant with fertiliser, intermingled with other crops and trees. Even here, it is a dull and unremarkable green shrub, but at least it is thriving, producing as much as 4kg per plant.

“This is not a wasteland crop,” Dr Jha says. “It needs fertiliser, water and good management. Yes, it grows on wasteland, but it doesn’t give you any yield.”

Dr Jha says companies such as D1 Oils, the London-listed biofuels company, which has planted about 257,000 hectares of jatropha, mainly in India, moved far too early.

“What we did with this crop is that we distributed it everywhere without having any patience, before finding out which genotypes are high-yielding. If we want, we can get a good amount of profit out if it, but we need to have patience.”

D1 is also having some nasty surprises on yield. It said in 2006 that it aimed to produce 2.7 tonnes of oil per hectare from areas planted with its new E1 variety, and 1.7 tonnes of oil from normal seed. That is equivalent to about 8 tonnes and 5 tonnes of seed per hectare respectively, or 3.5kg and and 2kg a plant.

Pradip Bhar, who runs the company’s D1 Williamson Magor Bio Fuel joint venture in India’s north east, admits he has yet to achieve a fraction of that.

“Hitting 500g is the challenge,” he says. “Mortality is quite high. But if we can reach 500g in two years’ time, after that the bush will continue to grow. Our expectation is that after the fourth year we will hit 1kg. The 1.5kg mark we haven’t touched as yet.”

Those are the results from the fertile state of Assam. The yields in other, dryer states such as Jharkand and Orissa, he says, are much worse.

But he still believes D1 was right to forge ahead with early planting because it will be at least an eight-year wait before varieties with good yields on wastelands are developed. Even D1’s E1 variety is not yet available in sufficient quantities.

Mr Bhar intends to hold the area under cultivation steady at about 132,000 hectares this year. As his plantations account for more than half of D1 Oils’ Jatropha crop, the company’s goal of planting 1 million hectares by 2011 looks like a tough one. He is concentrating instead on ensuring his small contract farmers continue tending it for the two or three years needed before it becomes profitable.

This challenge is one of the reasons why Prof Shah doubts the 500,000 hectares of jatropha the Indian government estimates has been planted so far. Only last month, he unsettled an annual meeting of the universities researching jatropha and India’s National Oilseeds and Vegetable Oil Development Board by reporting that only 5,000 hectares was actually under plantation in Gujarat, half the official estimate.