Miracle tree may lack the magic touch it’s fabled to have after all- Daily Nation

A failed large scale jatropha plantation project in Kiambere, Eastern Province suggesting that the plant requires irrigation to produce healthy seeds that can produce commercially exploitable oil. Photo/ISAIAH ESIPISU 

By GATONYE GATHURA
Posted Thursday, May 27 2010 at 20:10

Large-scale farming of the biodiesel jatropha tree should be stopped since it creates a food shortage.

It will harm the environment and is of little commercial value, according to a national research institution.

This comes as the country gears up for what could be the biggest jatropha biodiesel project in the region.

An Italian company, Nouve Iniziative Industriali sri, is clearing 55,000 hectares leased from the Malindi County Council for the jatropha plantations.

The biodiesel would be for local use as well as for export to Italy. It also promises to contribute electricity to the national grid and generate gas for domestic use.

But now the first scientific audit of the ‘miracle tree’ by the Kenya Forestry Research Institute (Kefri) and the World Agroforestry Centre and sponsored by the German government, says the crop is not economically viable when grown as a monoculture or in plantations.

In the Jatropha Reality Check February 2010 study, the researchers want the government to stop any promotion of the tree as a plantation crop.

“We believe doing otherwise would be extremely irresponsible and could exacerbate existing food insecurity throughout the country,” says the study.

The study hints that thousands of poor farmers in arid parts of the country may have been duped into buying the “miracle” seeds and seedlings at inflated prices.

Now the study wants the government through the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute to re-evaluate its current biofuels policy of promoting jatropha.

“We also urge all public and private sector actors to cease promoting the crop among small-scale farmers for any plantation apart from as a hedge,” says the study which is yet to be made public.

Having surveyed all jatropha farming in all parts of the country, the study concludes that the tree does not do well, as previously promoted, in arid areas as it requires huge amounts of water and nutrients in form of fertilisers.

But even before the Reality Check recommendations, the investing company had taken off on the wrong foot, when it started clearing the land without obtaining the mandatory Environmental Impact Assessment licence from the government.

This is now under way, following the direct intervention of the Ministry of the Environment and Mineral Resources, and the first public hearing was held last week at the project site in Magarini District.

The hearing pitted the investors and Malindi councillors on the one hand, government agencies and civic groups on the other, and the poor of Magarini, desperate for any type of employment, in the middle.

According to the Italians’ representative, Mr Ivan Del Prete, the company will turn near wasteland into a productive entity yielding biodiesel for export and local use, while creating about 1,500 jobs within five years.

The company has leased the 55,000 hectares of the trust land for 33 years at the rate of about Sh200 per hectare per year.

Justifying the project Mr Ivan Del Prete, says they are confident that one hectare has the potential to host up to 2,500 trees and produce up to six tonnes of seeds after three years of planting.

“The six tonnes can produce two tonnes of oil and almost 4 tonnes of pressing residues which will be used in biogas production for a bio fertilizer,”

The coordinator said the company plans to plant the crop from seeds which he says gives it a longer life of 50 years compared to 35 years when generated from cuttings. “We are sure the tree will do well here because it does not require much water and has little other competing commercial interests.”

Story Courtesy Daily Nation