FAQ’S ON JATROPHA : What is ‘Jatropha?’ ANSWER: ‘Jatropha’ (Jatropha curcas) is a drought-resistant perennial, growing well on marginal soils. It is easy to establish, grows relatively quickly - and lives, producing seed, for up to 50 years. It has been raised in tropical areas all over the world for centuries. Its origin is Central America over 70 million years ago. ‘Jatropha’ has healing properties, especially for skin conditions. It is well known by indigenous specialists who have extracted oil from its seeds. Being a folk medicine, Jatropha heals the skin and improves its natural resistance to the elements. It has been used for a number of skin ailments including eczema, acne, rashes and psoriasis. Otherwise, the plant is widely used as a living fence to protect fields from browsing animals, and as a hedgerow to prevent wind and water erosion. . Q: What magical properties does ‘Jatropha’ have to make it a wonder plant? A: It has no specific distinctions from other oil plants. Its calorific value and other characteristics are also found in other plant oils. The seeds of Jatropha contain a viscous, non-edible oil which can be used for manufacturing candles, high quality soap and cosmetic products It can also be used for cooking and lighting as a substitute for diesel fuel among others. It is estimated that four kilogrammes of Jatropha seed produce one litre of oil. One litre can be used for about 50 hours of lighting. For cooking, 350ml can last for three hours. Q:But where is the land to grow trees as well as continue to grow food? A:Look around you and think of what happens in India ..in many places land is used only for 3 months in a year during the monsoon…often because of lack of irrigation land lies fallow at other times..now imagine if there was water all year around then with smaller portions of land we could grow the same amount of food with multiple cropping and the rest of the land could be used for growing trees for oil. Plus there is always some unused land and jatropha trees are easy to grow, they have deep roots so they do not harm other crops around and they do not require too much care. Plus they grow in many climates all over India from the sea to the mountains. As these are to be grown in 2mx2m intercropping may be taken as multilaier cropping system. FOR MORE PLEASE ATTEND FOR DEMO/TRAINING Q:So anyone can plant a tree from seeds? A:Yes, but seeds should be of superior quality and fresh . It will be better to plant it through nursery operation . What is the advantage of bio diesels? There are many. First as you know diesel and petrol products have to be bought from other countries. Trees that give bio diesel grow in our country. So you save a lot of foreign exchange. Next petrol comes from under the earth and has taken million of years to form. Trees grow seeds every year! Moreover bio diesels are good for the environment. It cause:- SUSTAINABILITY POLLUTION REDUCTION REDUCTION OF GREEN HOUSE GAS EMISSIONS REGIONAL(RURAL) DEVELOPMENT SOCIAL STRUCTURE & AGRICULTURE SECURITY OF SUPPLY What kind of trees can make this diesel? There are two trees that grow all over India. One is the Pongamia that you know under the name of karanj and the other is Jatropha that is known as Ratanjyot .BUT jatropha has a SUPERIOR quality Does it really work? Yes; it has scientifically proved and even INDIAN RAIL has been tested on it You say we can make our diesel. How do we do it? Ratanjot trees have pods which has seeds. The seeds are pressed and sieved through a cloth and you have SVO But trees take a long time to grow. How is it going to bring us returns First you must understand that we are not talking of quick business. We are talking of a revolutionary change. We are talking of making you prosperous again. We are talking of being FREE from outside agencies. We leave the villages because the villages are not giving us sufficient earning.. Now I ask you to give this option a fair chance. We are talking about changing our future and the future of our country. And you can be the first ones to do in the north. We will have to find solutions but we will have to do it together.. Are you sure it is going to change things? Look around you. Are you doing better than what you would have if you could have looked after your land. Then look at your children. What future do they have here even if they finish school? If we start bio diesel activities in each village new jobs will be created, and our educated children will be able to find new challenges. When villages become rich then there will be new needs, small business will open, schools will be needed, the possibilities are unlimited but there is a waiting time, that we all have to realize But how long do we have to wait with the trees? Normally a Jatropha tree takes 2 to 3 years to produce seeds. No do not look like this!. You see if the small 3 month sapling is planted, then it grows faster and starts flowering in the second year. But we have to give it one more year by plucking the flowers and in the third year you start getting seeds. Now 3 years is not that long. Tell me how long did it take you to get a job when you came to the city? So!!! So 3 years before we get our oil crop? Jatropha, starts giving seeds in 6 months. So if we plan well in one year one starts having some oil. The difference is that the Jatropha plant starts giving seeds in full after 3-5 years How much oil does one Jatropha tree give? Full mature trees in one acre gives about 18000 kg seeds which yield 360 ltrs oil. What runs on Straight vegitable oil? Directly on SVO generators, tractors and farm machines, for other machines like jeeps, vans. Tempos etc there is a 2 tank with diesel in a small tank for starting and stopping and another for SVO used for running. . Barring oil are there other by-products? Yes, oil cake which is an excellent organic fertiliser sold at rs.3/- a kilo and even the shells that can be used as fuel or even transformed into coal pellets Besides soap manufacturing can be done! Can you give us some figures? There is start-up expenditure for plantation and thereafter is no expenditure as the trees be taken care of while inter-cropping. If we take minimum projection from 2nd year on wards i.e.50 qt. Seeds in one hectare and take the minimum rate of RS 5/kg it will easily give us an additional income of RS 25000/ without any extra burden apart from the other benefits of jatropha system