May 15th, 2009

FACT went to Mali Biocarburant in November 2008. Please read below the report on this visit by Winfried Rijssenbeek.

The visit to Mali Biocarburant (MBSA) At MB Hugo Verkuijl explained the different stages of the Jatropha production and processing it is involved in.  

Agriculture

MBSA trains the farmers’ cooperative with the production of seedling production using simple technology nurseries that farmers can apply on their farms. The nurseries are slightly elevated over the ground (using adobes at the side) and the growing substrate consists of a mix of sand, soil, organic matter, and husk is used to create a light soil in which the seeds are planted, without any plastic. The seedlings once of sufficient length (root <20 cm), are taken out and transplanted bare rooted.

As one nursery bed can cover 1000 plants and is located close to the fields to be planted, this bare roote transplantation to the field does not provide any problem. Farmers start the nursery few months before the rainy season and can plant the Jatropha at its onset. Sometimes few times watering of the plants is done using simple hand irrigation.  

In order to make the nursery farmers should have  access to water. In most of the area water is found less than 10 m of depth. Currently water is fetch using buckets, but consideration is given to introduce small solar PV pumps or possibly small wind pumps. In this one can refer to very simple and low cost rope hand pumps and windpumps as promoted by Henk Holtslag.  At the premises (ca 2 ha) of MBSA also some experimental fields are set out. One of the field with ordinary Kita accession Jatropha, yielded already after 6 month and is doing very well. Although not fertilized the field and only watered the first 2 month the plants of feb 2008 are doing very good and still are green. The field is also quite homogeneous in terms of plant size and plant shape. The accession is branching very low at the stems and each branch terminal produces flowers. 

One of the best plants was estimate to have yielded some 600 gr dry seeds, but is continuing with seeds, and most likely in a year a 1 kg of dry seeds might be yielded.  With 1000 plants per ha ( intercropped with groundnuts and watermelons) and with ca 0.5 kg/ha average yield after the first year 1.25 ton/ha in the first year is extremely good and it is not unlikely to yield next year a 3 tonnes and possibly level of at 3.5 depending on nutrients supply. Still this would enable a yield of ca 1000 liter/ha/yr.  

Next, it was observed that Jatropha intercropped with maize or more water demanding crops simultaneously, will inhibit Jatropha growth considerably as maize extracts water also close to the Jatropha. Plants had lost all leaves already and were considerably smaller than the of the plot were the intercrop was only sown few months after establishment. Shading effects might also play a role.   

Also clear-cut was the demonstration of Jatropha planted on shallow grounds. At this location the top soil is less than 15 cm. Here a dramatically stagnant Jatropha plants were found, as if they had not grown since nursery. Again this stresses the issue that if Jatropha is planned to produce biofuels economically, one should not select such shallow or marginal soils.  Interesting was the observation that Jatropha by shedding part of its foliage seems to reducing soil evaporation, and allowing more rain to infiltrate and not run of. This effect is not yet quantified by MBSA.  

Finally an R&D trial is to study the beneficial effect of Jatropha on soil improvement that might allow for an increase of yield of the crops with more than 20 %. So with an area coverage of Jatropha of 20 % food crops yields would compensate the reduction in area covered. In other words, if well practiced Biofuels and Food crops can match and result in a higher food crop production on the same area with fuels production as extra benefit.

MBSA’s results are extremely encouraging.  MBSA is also working in its farming extension services in increasing the agricultural production, so that Jatropha and food and cash crops are yielding better. In this respect it also is engaged in testing drought tolerant maize verieties in combination with Jatropha, so reduce risks of crop failure with low rain. 

KIA and Trees for travel

One of the income streams that can add substantially to the farmers income is the Voluntary Carbon Market in which organizations and businesses are prepared to pay for CO2 emission reductions which are beneficial for local population’s economic development. In this case KIA the car manufacturer buys the CO2 offsets that are rated 5 Euro per ton per year. With an expected CO2 emission reductions of 5 ton/year/ha this brings a interesting revenue stream of 25 Euro per year.

As compared to eg. a yield of 3 ton of seeds that pays 230 Euro this is still only  11 % but with rising prices VER can increase to 15 EURO/ton in future.

An interesting feature is that  Trees for Travel can also pay in advance of the emission reductions so that the prospected savings can already be used as part of the investment. An independent Malian auditor, agreed by Trees for Travel ensures the audit of CO2 reductions.  

By having this direct contact MBSA gets a good price and KIA finds VER’s, having minimum transaction costs. Another incentive for farmers for selling their seeds to MBSA is given by the fact that they are 20 % shareholders. This makes them benefit from dividends and rising share prices.