Jatropha Nurseries &
Plantations
 There
is little fully documented Jatropha plantation
data. Much of this is due to the rise of
biofuels only being prevalent since 2001.
As such, numerous plantation efforts have been
wasted (non-productive) through planting poor
quality seeds and/or seedlings. While some
excuses for this could have been beyond the
farmer's control (such as inclement weather and
the like), most fall back on poor planting
stock. Whether the project is small or large
scale, "the quality of the seedlings is
important to the success of the project".
Quality seeds and/or seedlings are derived from
nursery-grown stock, which, if encompassing R&D
and technology discoveries, requires large
investment. The levels of these costs relate to
the type of nursery stock produced, plant growth
responses and the number of seeds/seedlings
produced.
Naturally the cost of the seeds/seedlings is
higher than random purchases. However, the
potential benefits to the plantation of a
capable nursery output far outweigh these
initial costs. For instance, properly developed
seedlings stand a better chance of survival when
replanted. The simple facts are that a
properly planned and grown Jatropha plantation
will outperform those created from random seeds
purchased over the internet or from Jatropha
trees of unknown provenance. The quality
of the JatrophaTech produces seedlings can be
rigorously controlled by JatrophaTech
technicians, and thus better results are
achieved.
In the long term, quality stock will also
produce a faster, higher return for the desired
outputs. These outputs include products such as
oil, erosion control, and soil improvement.
Given these benefits, seedling costs are a small
portion of the end-product value of plantations.
Conversely, slackened efforts at ensuring stock
quality will result in lost opportunity
throughout the life of the plantation.
Low-quality seedlings will experience slow
growth after transplanting and the trees will
have lower product yields.
Consequently, project management must have a
primary objective - To acquire the best
seeds/seedlings to grow the best possible trees,
for the highest plantation outputs, for the
least possible cost.
Seed/Seedlings Procurement
As preparations in the field are being made,
strong emphasis must be placed on the
preparation of seeds/seedlings stock supply. The
management's goal must be to have an adequate
supply of seeds/seedlings ready to be
out-planted according to a set plan. Each phase
of the preparation process can potentially
effect the success of the project.
To ensure supply of quality stock, a series of
steps must be followed beginning with the
planning stages and carried through to
out-planting in the field. Often project
managers focus their efforts on only some of the
steps which sometimes omits ensuring ready
supply of quality seeds/seedlings resulting in
interruptions to training and planning which can
eventually progress into producing a sub-optimum
plantation. Such results should not be
acceptable in light of the time and costs
required to produce a plantation crop. The
seed/seedling producer must take the trouble to
visit field plantations and take pride in the
way their plants have responded to the harshness
of the real world.
JatrophaTech recognizes that the lack of plant
(seed/seedling) knowledge is the greatest
hindrance to plantation project managers.
Just learning how to create high quality
seedlings can take a long time and for many
proves to be almost impossible.
JatrophaTech uses its proprietary "aero-cloner"
technology to make the job of creating high
quality seedlings significantly easier and the
knowledge requirement is thus reduced.
With their tightly controlled environments and
highly automated growth control systems,
producing high quality seedlings is made a whole
lot easier.
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