FAO report: jatropha a promising crop

Biodiesel Magazine
August 2010
By Luke Geiver
Posted Aug. 3, 2010

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has joined the supporters of jatropha as a possible feedstock for biodiesel production. In conjunction with the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the FAO has published a report that outlines the benefits and uses of the crop, titled, “Jatropha: A Smallholder Bioenergy Crop.” The report states, “Jatropha is an underutilized, oil-bearing crop. It produces a seed that can be processed into non-polluting biodiesel that, if well exploited, can provide opportunities for good returns and rural development.”

Although most jatropha currently available remains toxic, the report said that jatropha could eventually, “evolve into a high yielding crop and may well be productive on degraded and saline soils in low rainfall areas,” adding, “Its by-products may possibly be valuable as fertilizer, livestock feed, or as a biogas feedstock, its oil can have other markets such as for soap, pesticides and medicines, and jatropha can help reverse land degradation.”

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