Jatropha farmers walk on slippery ground

Mr Benard Muok, a researcher with African Centre for Technology Studies, says about 80 per cent of the total land mass in Kenya is categorised as Asals where communities dependent on livestock production with semi-sedentary farming yet most of these lands are suitable for Jatropha production.

“Biofuel production has a great potential to change the face of our Arid and Semi Arid areas because it has a return of Sh66,000 per acre compared to the Sh40,000 per acre from maize fields,” Mr Isaac Kalua, the founder and chairman of the Green Africa – one of the NGOs that promote oil plant production in the country told the Business Daily in an earlier interview.

Paraffin substitute

Over the years, oil fuel bubble has burst with the international petroleum prices tiptoeing at affordable ranges - hitting the rock bottom level of $36 dollars per barrel in 2009 before rising steadily to $83 this week.

To jatropha farmers, the waning global interest in oil plants comes at a time that poor storage of the harvested seeds in the worm-infested region has been blamed for causing losses to farmers

“If a proper market is found for the oil plants (jatropha) then our farmers who have invested in it will be able to benefit from the farming,” said Dr Manase Wasuna the Manager of ARC Kenya

But even as they wait endlessly for the biofuel money, the Majiwa farmers say interspersing jatropha with crops such as maize or beans have improved their food crop yields.

They also experimented with the Jatropha oil for medicinal purposes with claims it eliminates jiggers.

More importantly, the farmers have found out that the oil is a suitable substitute for paraffin in its raw form.

“It burns two to three times longer than paraffin, and has very little fire hazard,” says Mr Richard Oduor, a farmer from Asembo, 15 kilometres from Majiwa

Industrially, the plant apart from producing bio-fuel, offers glycerin, a raw material for soap making while the seed cake is used to make cattle feeds.

Studies show the plant is the most promising for bio diesel due to minimum requirements for inputs and ability to grow in dry land.

A report titled, Towards Sustainable Production and Use of Resources: Assessing Biofuels, released by the United Nations Environment Programme last year indicates that while each country has varying needs and impact of biofuels programmes that should guide policy makers, the experiences of Brazil and Malawi is that food and biofuel production can take place in tandem.