Jatropha sold as ornamental in Florida
The glow from burning jatropha seed torches has often saved Maruti Chindu from treading on snakes, but now he carefully nurtures them for a use that he never imagined before — running cars and trucks.
On the hilly grasslands of the western state of Maharashtra, near the village of Malegaon, Chindu and his tribe of some 40 men and women busily plant jatropha saplings. The saplings are expected to bear seed in three to four years, one of dozens of new biodiesel projects being planned by private firms to feed India’s galloping energy needs.
Once the trees start bearing seeds, they will continue the yields for the next 30 years without a break.
“When electricity came to our village eight, 10 years ago, everybody just forgot about the jatropha trees,” said Chindu. “We could not believe our ears when people offered to pay us to cultivate jatropha trees on our lands.”
In anticipation of the rapidly evolving biofuels market, dozens of private firms are contracting villagers to grow the hardy, oil-rich plant in their mostly barren plots of land.
In the past, the tribes — who have suffered caste discrimination for years in India — would randomly pluck the fat, green seeds of the jatropha and set them on bamboo spikes to make torches. But now they treat the plant almost reverentially.
If this turns out to be more productive than some of the crops planned for biodiesel here in the U.S. — let’s see if Jatropha plantations might be safely managed in our southern climates!
Given the climate, you might wonder if and when the Mexican government will consider similar efforts involving their rural poor. Or just stick with the proven plan of exporting them to the U.S.?
Maybe all the people who don’t want wind farms to “spoil the beauty” of their views won’t mind some trees growing on the same spot?
#2: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The huge wind farm surrounding Tehachapi, CA (for instance) is certainly beautiful in this engineer’s eye.
AThe only problem with planting this froeign crop is that it might “get away” and replace native trees. Examples in the Southwest include tamarisk and Russian Olive, which overrun native river forests.
There will probalby be some way to catch a buzz off of it, so it will end up being illegal over here.
Well I’m not too sure that this is a bad idea, I haven’t seen anything to suggest it is a good idea.
Yes, it is nice to have additional sources of energy. The critical thing is the cost of the energy. On a local TV station, they recently did a piece on E85, alcohol / gasoline blend. What cost them $27 in regular gas cost over $37 in E85 to go the same distance. Simply because alcohol only has about 75% the energy that gasoline has per unit.
So while growing this plant might supply some oil, what might have been grown there otherwise and how much will it cost to harvest the seeds.