Jatropha has great potential to grow on lands, that are not productive for food crop. If inter-cropped with Castor, income and oil production starts from first year itself. Jatropha yields oil in smallest time frame as compared all other trees.

It can be done on fallow lands, requires less amount of water and yields oil in 3 years.

It can be planted in fields of size ranging from 1 to 10 acres for one farmer to 1,000 acres for large plantation companies. Income will be proportionate to size of field.

Jatropha Saplings are generally prepared from Seeds. These can also be produced from branches. Hybrid and Clonal varieties are also available.

Tree grown from seeds have a tap root, which helps in droughts and cyclones. It can collect water from deep soil and anchors the tree. Cuttings do not have tap root, but seeds are obtained much earlier.

These are done in Green / Net Houses. The production cost of sapling is higher. Individual farmer produces saplings in field, which is much cheaper.

It helps as initial growth of saplings. It is good and more saplings survive well in fields.

Organic farming is better as it is natural and requires lesser amounts of fertilizers and pesticides.

Disease Control is much easier in nurseries as young saplings are attacked by pests in first 3 months. Also plants are stacked in smaller area in closed chambers, so individual attention can be provided to all saplings.

Jatropha is good for employment for rural poor people. In India, it is used for lighting the lamps and in Soap manufacture, as other edible oils, like palm, used so far are very expensive (prices have doubled). Jatropha has bright future in India, as our country is densely populated and soil is good due to largely organic farming techniques used for last hundreds of years. In countries in Africa where it is not populated, the expenses for roads and townships that need to be set up are prohibitive. This makes africa less attractive. In south east asia, labour costs are double that of India.

India's share will always be more than 50% as the land is organic and labour is quite inexpensive. There is a lot of manual work in plantation, pruning and harvesting. Machines for planting, pruning and harvesting are not yet developed.

It will not be possible to satisfy local demand and export to other countries is unlikely.

1 liter of oil is produced from 3 to 4 kgs of seeds. The seed cost is currently around Rs. 12 to 14 per kg and cost of extraction is Rs. 2 per liter of oil.

In India, nobody can hold more than 50 acres of land, hence most plantations are scattered on small lands. These are owned by the people who work on their own land. These are close to their villages. These are taken care manually, and yield best results.

There are two methods. Oil expeller is for small activity (1 to 10 tons per day) and Solvent extraction for capacities more than 100 tons per day. You can get 25% oil in first case while 30% in second case.

Jatropha is planted in 3 X 3 meters square configuration. This allows us to plant 400 plants per acre or 1,100 plants per hectare. Castor is planted as intercrop for first two years

Contract farming works well where the supply is much more than demand and the processing machinery is expensive and processing is difficult. It is not the case in Jatropha. Farmers may sell it to some one offering higher price than the contract price.

These are Jatropha Curcas, Pongamia Pinnata, Mahua, Castor, Simarouba, Kokam etc. Jatropha Curcas, Pongamia Pinnata and Mahua are plantations which give non edible oil. Castor is a 6 month crop which gives non edible oil and is grown as intercrop within Plantations. Simarouba, Kokam is a plantation which gives edible oil.

You can get 2.5 tons of Castor seeds in first and second year and 2.5 tons of Jatropha seed from third to fifth year. You can get higher yields after 5 years. Jatropha will yield seeds for 40 to 50 years.

In Power Generating sets, oil is burnt at high temperature (100^o C or higher), at which viscosity reduces considerably. Any unit generating 1 megawatt or higher can burn the oil directly.

An expeller plant is required to extract oil from seeds. The size of expeller unit can be 1 MT / day (Capital Cost Rs. 700,000) or 1 MT / hour (Capital Cost Rs. 3,000,000) or 2 MT / hour (Capital Cost Capital Cost Rs. 5,000,000). These values are indicative and you should get fresh quotes from expeller manufacturers. Depending on the capacity of the plant the cost of expelling oil will be between Re. 0.19 per liter to Re 0.90 per liter of oil.

Castor and Corn are the best inter crops. These are energy crops and yield income in 5 months.

This is not a good idea as when Palm / Rubber tree grows it covers entire area, and less sunlight is available for Jatropha.

It is not recommended as Jatropha is non edible, and mixing it with edible crops is dangerous.