Jatropha for Dummies - Part 3 - The Farming

We have seen in the last segment of this series: Jatropha has a future which will be non-toxic. I pointed out that high yielding planting material will become available rather sooner than later to make JcL ready for commercial success as a feedstock for high revenue energy products and animal feed. But with the right planting material available, what will the ideal farm look like when we get there?

Looking for the proper farming concepts we should first understand that JcL is a tree crop (or rather a bush or shrub). Traditionally it was planted in hedges which primarily had a living fence function to separate cattle from farmed fields. Obviously Jatropha was doing well in such a planting pattern where mono cropping is not an issue which in JcL brings along problems like heavy pest attacks and scarcity of water and nutrients. Therefore the good old hedges planted alongside roads and fields with superior modern planting material can become a great way for the traditional small African farmer to make himself some extra income while fully sticking to his original farming practices.

Freshly pruned JcL double alleys

But, as a completely different playing field we also have to look deeper into large scale commercial farming. At Bionic Palm we have run an extensive Jatropha test farming project on more than 100 ha for many years to study the best agronomic methods. Very early we understood that true sustainability can never be accomplished with a mono cropping system. Thus, over a series of intermediary steps, we arrived at our optimal solution: double alleys with a minimum of 10 m in between for permanent intercropping with the most convenient annual crops.

The double alley approach has numerous advantages especially in semi arid climates. The hedges offer protection from soil erosion through wind and rain. They can also improve soil quality in many ways operating as a nutrient pump from deeper levels, adding carbon to the soil by shedding their leaves and by supporting and maintaining microorganisms added to the soil like mycorrhiza.

If irrigation is part of the farming strategy permanent piping can be installed in between the double hedges giving them good protection.

While many annual crops (maize, soy, beans, ground nut just to name a few) can be planted together with JcL hedges we actually prefer high value vegetable crops in combination with a no-till system, be it glyphosate (round-up) or cover crop based. Only these crops really bring the enormous profitability potential of an agroforestry concept built on non-toxic JcL backbones into reality.

Adding a comprehensive soil development and management concept utilizing biochar and organic fertilizer can help turning very difficult environmental conditions like in former mining areas around.  

Bionic Palm has launched the Jatropha Breeder 3.0 Blog

After experimenting with the idea for almost a year Bionic Palm MD Ulrich B Riemann has finally decided to officially launch his new blog "The Jatropha Breeder 3.0 by Bionic Palm". This coincides with the successful end of an almost 24 months proof-of-concept (POC) testing our various ideas and concepts to improve the immensely under-performing Jatropha curcas species in its potential role as an energy and feed crop.

We were able to demonstrate with great success that our vision of high performing non-toxic Jatropha cultivars is not a dream, but in many ways a reality. Before the POC ended June 30th we were able to develop the first 12 seedlings of a highly variable back-cross generation (BC1). This generation of unique hybrids will be a cornerstone for various promising breeding approaches to come. Going forward many high yielding non-toxic and toxic varieties will be developed. We expect to reach our initial target of a high performing non-toxic elite cultivar within the coming 24 months. Field testing has already started with some unique early non-toxic intraspecific hybrids which will be used in long term poultry feed trials starting later this year.

Here at the Bionic Group we are all very excited to see what was achievable so far with a small network of scientific partners from Europe and a very small budget. A significant amount of valuable IP has been generated which will lead to a number of patent applications in the near future.

Jatropha for Dummies - Part 1 - The Crunch

I meet all these people lately asking me, hey, "what are you doing down there in Africa..." and I say: "Jatropha farming my friend" trying to be as brief as possible. 95% of the time I either get a blank look or a "Huu Jat... eh... what did you say? Never heard of it."

This is hard to believe for somebody who has spent every day of his live since 2008 with the ups and downs of this business but its the plain truth, most people don't have the slightest idea what I am talking about... So usually quite hesitantly I start going on: "You know, its this new crop people talk about a lot recently for producing non-edible oil to be used in airplanes replacing some of today's fossil jet fuels and get the airlines' carbon balance right". Ahh, they say, "like palm oil isn't it? But isn't that bad for the environment?"

Listening to this again and again and reading all those vastly unfounded reports from NGO's bashing a very promising future energy and animal feed crop that has not even fully emerged the "breeder's drawing board" yet has finally convinced me to start writing this small series of articles. It should help those interested and with an open mind to understand better what the whole thing is about.

I myself am the MD of Bionic Palm in Ghana and a Jatropha farmer, but even more an active breeder of future high yielding Jatropha and a developer of all kinds of "agronomic" techniques aiming to make this plant a profitable and highly sustainable source of energy and protein. We work with partners from around the world who share our motivation.

There is an obvious high disappointment by many with Jatropha by many investors and downstream oil users, however, this is a notion commonly not shared by long standing experienced researchers of the plant. Now, why is that so?

Jatropha (to be correct "Jatropha curcas Linn" or for us from here on simply JcL) is a native of Central America and a member of a large genus of approx. 172 different species. It offers a lot of interesting features as a biological system that have never been fully explored.  JcL was brought to Africa and Asia many hundred years ago by the Portuguese. Until recently its use was mainly limited to serving as hedges separating cattle from fields and controlling mosquitoes with a small side use for soap and candle making. Therefore, there was never any serious domestication of the plant and for many decades it was basically left to itself until it was rediscovered in Africa and India as a possible feedstock source for biodiesel. The big hype that followed with investors was never founded on well thought through agronomic and business plans and definitely not based on a sound scientific understanding of JcL specifically or its taxonomic genus in general. Only a small number of reports had been published on the plant and only a handful of scientists had ever studied it. (A situation that significantly changed over the last 5 years.)

Still the investors of the early years concentrated on the acquisition of hundreds of thousands of hectars and started planting rapidly without ever truly analyzing the material they were working with. The back lash came quickly: The near wild plants they chose to plant with enormous financial efforts did not perform anywhere near as expected in their presentations. They all left out a very simple rule of agricultural projects: testing, testing, testing... When they started realizing their mistakes it was already too late. The investors' money was gone and projects failing everywhere as they were never planned right in the first place. And then the global financial crisis hit, so no fresh money was available anywhere. Today we find large numbers of suspended or even completely abandoned projects from those days especially all over Africa.

It didn't take long and legions of would be experts started blaming and criticizing JcL as the wrong approach for an endless number of reasons. However, since the people writing all the negative reports are not remotely the same kind of experts on JcL as they are on negative report writing, very few sound, business oriented assessments surfaced over the last few years. We have recently reported about one here.

But mostly unrecognized in public, in the background there was some profound practical and scientific work starting. While industry, finance and politics started abandoning JcL everywhere many researchers and agronomists picked up the subject and started for the first time some serious work on tha5t crop.

This author made some simple statements in a presentation given at a conference in 2008 in Accra:
(Here you can find a later, refined version of this very presentation)

"The Jatropha value chain is financially not working out for the early producers".

But, the statement continued: "the outlook is positive once the following conditions are met:
1 - high yielding domesticated cultivars become available
2 - improved agronomic methods increase yields
3 - JcL specific mechanization technology becomes available"

Today I would add a statement about non-toxic cultivars or (less preferable) successful detoxification of the press cake in order to be able to use it as animal feed.

It was all clear in 2008 (while most still presented their old business models and some even do it until today), what is stated in more an more scientific reports: we need better planting material to begin with! However, improving planting material by large margins has been done again and again, so why not with JcL? Its quite impressive to study the history of the development of some common crops like maize with yield improvements of several hundred percent over the last 50-100 years.

In spite of the permanent flow of critical reporting, new strategies have been put in place around the world to change the JcL picture regarding all of the above mentioned points.

For example a company called SG Biofuels from San Diego, California has launched its Jatropha 2.0 platform with a lot of marketing hype (prematurely as I think) while we at Bionic Palm started our Bionic JcL3.0 initiative focused on Africa but actually reaching out much further than SGB. What all these activities have in common is a more profound approach to overcome the barriers that stopped the early JcL growers.

So what is out there to be expected?

My prediction is for a thriving JcL industry starting to pick up around 2015 with some early adopters of a generation 3 approach. Improved cultivars start coming up and will do so in growing numbers over the next couple of years. We plan to have a first high yielding non-toxic cultivar available for extensive testing by the end of 2013 after finalizing a proof of concept by mid 2012.

The markets, especially for green jet fuel (SPK) sector, will push hard for more supply, as their demand will be rising seriously from 2012 when Europe introduces its new emission policy for all commercial airlines flying in and out of Europe. Therefore the interested industry is already returning to JcL working on all kinds of feasibility reports and finance will start following them as long term off-take agreements become common.

Unfortunately we are currently going through a phase which I call the Jatropha generation 2, where strange people are pushing around clouds, sign long term deals for non existent Jatropha oil and "buy and sell" on the web a commodity that mostly doesn't exist. This is the aftermath of the generation 1 gold rush and will vanish as soon as serious generation 3 projects emerge, based on strategies incorporating sound planting materials and agronomy concepts.

This article will be followed by 4 more attempting to give more insight about what is to be expected from JcL:

Jatropha for Dummies - Part 2 - The future is non-toxic
Jatropha for Dummies - Part 3 - The Farming
Jatropha for Dummies - Part 4 - Equipment and Processing
Jatropha for Dummies - Part 5 - JcL Break Through - But When?

Please visit also our Jatropha Breeder 3.0 Blog where we talk about our breeding platform in more detail.

Excellent new report on the future of Jatropha published

An excellent investor oriented 43 page report on Jatropha (JcL) has been published by Hardman & Co titled "Plant with a bad Name". It is definitely the best publication of this kind we have ever seen anywhere, a must read for any serious player in the industry. The full document can be downloaded here.

The report points out the simple fact, that spectacular failures in the past with a number of JcL projects are no indication for the performance of this crop in the future. The past was based on semi wild planting material and little agronomic knowledge on how to manage it correctly. There was simply not enough scientific and practical background for commercial JcL farming. The report shows in detail, how this situation is changing rapidly. "Professional planters, working with Jatropha crop scientists are now developing commercially sized and scalable plantations in suitable growing locations. These ventures have the potential to prove the commercial case for Jatropha as a biofuels feedstock." This statement from the report sums up all the contained details very well, which have been brought together in one place for the first time.

Bionic Palm itself is at the forefront of this development with its world class JcL breeding program and its integrated food & fuel farming concept. Both approaches are unique in several ways and the goals exceed highly marketed activities by others. That's why we started calling our platform JcL3.0.

We focus on the development of non toxic, high yielding hybrid cultivars in our genetic marker assisted breeding program where we partner with Geneticlab, a world leader in commercial research on molecular genetics of JcL. The report describes the great opportunities of a detoxification process for the  press cake, a process said to be commercially available by 2012/2013. We are very confident, that our focused hybrid breeding process will turn out the first commercially usable non-toxic planting material  within about the same time frame. Non-toxic or at least controlled low-toxic material is actually a must for the future protection of workers' health, as it is well known, that current JcL can become a serious long term health hazard to farm workers exposed to it for years. We will soon publish a document, that is going to look at the many advantages of non-toxic hybrid planting material vs. the current toxic one even with detoxification available.

Our integrated food & fuel farming is another piece of leading edge JcL development which we have been testing intensively over the last 3 years on our 150ha test plantation. This presentation explains most of the aspects involved in detail. The concept is highly sustainable, can reclaim depleted and eroded soils and generate food outputs currently unseen in Sub Saharan Africa, while still generating significant volumes of Jatropha products.

Bionic Palm's Jatropha hybrid breeding program

1 year ago BPL started breeding for high yielding non-toxic Jatropha hybrids as part of the ambitious BIONIC JCL 3.0 program. Early interspecific hybrid results are very promising. An ongoing proof of concept phase should be completed before the end of 2011.
 
Jatropha curcas Lin (JcL) is a relatively new discovery for the world of non edible plant oils for energy and chemical use as a sustainable substitute for fossil crude oil. However, it is considered a very promising plant by experts given its ability to survive even under the hardest environmental conditions.

JcL hedges form the back bone of Bionic Palm's innovative food and fuel farming concept covering 30% of the farmed land and facilitate the recovery of previously depleted African farmland. 

The planting material currently in use by most plantation projects around the world is commercially insufficient and  mostly defined as wild accessions by scientists. An optimization through professional breeding programs  is desperately needed if this crop is to make it. Only domesticated hybrid varieties will eventually be able to meet investors and farmers expectations in terms of yield, oil quality and other important traits.

In addition, it would be of high commercial value, if "non-toxic" elite varieties could be developed. The byproduct from pressing oil, the oil cake, could be used as a high quality feed material for poultry and fish.

There is evidence from many scientific reports that the development of high yielding and non-toxic hybrids can be achieved through traditional breeding methods. However, the genetic variability of JcL has been reported to be very limited  recently. Therefore, an intraspecific breeding approach as marketed by some protagonists in the industry like SG Biofuels and Quinvita (former D1 plant sciences, just to name two), who are usually boasting with their large collections of Jatropha curcas material from around the world, does not promise stunning break throughs.

Bionic Palm's management team has been listening carefully to the scientific community and is following a radically different approach in its fast track program to make the first non-toxic true elite Jatropha cultivars available. Based on yet unpublished scientific work from the recent past, we have selected the most genetically suited 10 JcL accessions from around the world (including 4 non-toxic ones) together with a number of related varieties from the genus Jatropha as parent plants and mapped out a detailed interspecific hybrid breeding path.

The breeding process will be backed by genetic marker technology thus reducing time requirements by a factor of at least 3. We expect the first patentable results in 24 to 36 months. Bionic Palm has already spent over 18 months, to get the selected parental material in place at its Ghana research facility. The program has taken off in December 2010 with performing the first crossings of the program map.

The program has been designed with three guidelines in mind: Quick results, highly manageable and low risk. Successful results will not only change the economics of JcL profoundly, but also improve the working conditions for farm workers, who often suffer from allergic reactions after some years of intensive exposure to the plant and its seeds.

A special blog called "The Jatropha Breeder" shares more specific information and highlights about this activity.

Bionic Palm Ltd, our sustainable biomass feedstock company

Today we start talking about another area of activities within the Bionic Fuel Group, the African agricultural venture Bionic Palm Ltd. Ghana (BPL). The company was founded in 2007 and came a long way since then. An early attempt to take over an existing palm oil mill was terminated after a few months. Subsequently BPL started its "food and energy" project model in Ghana's coastal savannah about 50km outside of the capital Accra. This presentation gives an overview on what we are doing. We started a test farm which has currently reached a size of approx. 150ha.

Building on the test farm experience an innovative integrated farming model was designed which will be rolled out as soon as the necessary funding is in place. We expect to create at least 500 permanent jobs. We consider 5000ha as the upper limit for this project. Food:Energy ratio will be 7:3 in terms of land use.  However, food crops could not be grown with the same sustainable yields without Jatropha hedges, therefore we actually exceed the potential of food crops per ha without the hedges while only using 70% of the land.

The farm will produce quality food for the local markets especially in the urban center of Accra/Tema and generate its own energy from the farm waste.

The test farm employs 35 people permanently by now and grows local crops like chili pepper, maize, aubergines, onions, tomatoes and more. All of the planting takes place in between Jatropha double hedges in a cropping system called double alley planting. A poultry farm has also been started with chicken, guinea fowls and turkeys.

There are many advantages to the Bionic farming system, which avoids the issues of mono cropping and improves water, soil and nutrient management.

A soil improvement program directed at depleted topical soils has been initiated involving biochar in combination with a system of mineral and biological amendments like mycorrhiza. Mid term only natural fertilizers will be used, like the Jatropha press cake, manure from our poltry farm, compost and more.

The model roll out will integrate a microfuel plant with agricultural "waste" as feedstock. It will come primarily from the annual pruning of the Jatropha hedges plus any additional waste deriving from growing food crops. The fuel will be used for the farm equipment, the biochar mixed with above mentioned biofertilizers and additives will return to the fields. Given the 100% use of biofuel and the additional carbon sequestration through adding the biochar to the soil should result in an actual carbon negative footprint of the farm.

In order to fill some availability gaps and to further improve the model BPL has decided to embark on its own R&D activities. A breeding program for Jatropha curcas Linn and localized food crops and a soil amendment biochar++ program are included to develop sustained optimal soil conditions in the tropical environment. Both programs have started and involve cooperations with strong research partners in the related fields.

Our R&D objectives:
Breeding programs:

• Locally adapted elite, non-toxic Jatropha varieties
• Localized improved varieties for tomatoes, chili pepper and aubergines

Biochar++:

• Soil amendment concepts based on biochar that will overcome the agricultural issues of tropical savannah soil

I will certainly write more about both programs in the near future. in the mean time you can have a look at our extensive geotagged picture gallery documenting the development of the test farm from the very beginning.