June 24th, 2011

 

After the visit of the first lady, Mrs. Guebuza in 2008 to the FACT-ADPP project in Cabo Delgado, it was now the president of Mozambique himself whom visited Bilibiza, on Saturday, June 4, 2011. He was very impressed by the farmers clubs, the jatropha production and the oil processing factory.  Bachir Afonso, one of the project leaders of the FACT-ADPP pilot Jatropha project, was spokesman and handed the President an informative paper about the project. Some farmers from the clubs were present and showed products from their fields at an exposition made by ADPP.  Bachir explained the challenges ahead and asked the president for support, amongst others the University Eduard Mondlane was also asked for support, to help with quality control of the PPO. The visit had a duration of half an hour. According to Bachir, the president wanted to replicate the set up elsewhere in Mozambique.  Notícias, a national newspaper, reported that several farmers in Northern Mozambique had jatropha seeds in stock, which they were unable to market. Some 6 years ago, the President had asked the Mozambican population to plant as much jatropha as possible, which had been followed-up by quite a number of farmers. However, no oil processing facilities were planned by the government, and at present, facilities like BBC that can produce PPO from jatropha can be counted on one hand. ADPP is herewith on the forefront of jatropha production by poor, rural farmers and can therefore provide an example for rural areas in Mozambique, with suitable conditions to grow jatropha.