Taiwanese company and NARI to develop jatropha in Papua New Guinea

NARI council chairman Dr John Kola (left) and general manager of ShineSun PNG Ltd Ken Cheng after signing the agreement on jatropha development in PNG. Looking on are representatives of NARI, Sunshine PNG and DAL

By UDAI PAL of NARI

National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) has entered into an agreement with Taiwanese investor ShineSun (PNG) Ltd for research and training on jatropha.

The key to the future of bio-fuel is finding inexpensive feed stocks that can be grown by farmers on marginal agricultural land and jatropha is one of many plants that hold a great deal of promise.

Jatropha proves to be a promising bio-fuel plantation and could emerge as a major alternative to diesel.

A memorandum of agreement was signed recently in Port Moresby by Dr John Kola, council chairman of NARI and Ken Yuan Chieu Cheng, general manager of ShineSun.

The signing ceremony was witnessed by NARI director general Dr Raghunath Ghodake, a representative of the Taiwanese ambassador, staff members of ShineSun, Department of Agriculture and Livestock and NARI’s southern regional centre based at Laloki outside Port Moresby.

The purposes of the agreement are to:

· Conduct and promote research on jatropha (Jatropha curcas) and provide training and planting materials to farmers who will become outgrowers of Jatropha in PNG;

· Share land and facilities at NARI Laloki for conducting research and promoting development of jatropa farming;

· Share knowledge and expertise of NARI and ShineSun on jathropa research and development;

· Implement the above basic objectives so as to help develop jatropha as an alternative cash crop for both smallholders and commercial plantations in Papua New Guinea and to help integrate jatropa cultivation in farming systems for sustainability; and

· Effectively pursue jatropha research and training to facilitate national jatropha technical steering committee for the development of jatropha biofuel project in PNG.

Jatropha oil displacing conventional fossil fuel makes the project fully eligible as recipient of carbon credits.
Jatropha qualifies to be a better alternative for bio-fuel than other food/oil crops such as corn, sorghum, cassava, soybeans or rapeseed as the use of these may lead to risk of global food scarcity and price rise.

Jatropha is an underutilised, oil-bearing crop.

It produces a seed that can be processed into non-polluting bio-diesel that, if well exploited, can provide opportunities for good returns and rural development.

Jatropha can also be used as a living fence to keep out livestock, control soil erosion and improve water infiltration.

The waste products from jatropha bio-diesel production can be used as a fertiliser for producing bio-gas, and the jatropha seedcake can potentially be used as livestock feed.

In addition to growing on degraded and marginal lands, this crop has special appeal, in that it grows under drought conditions and animals do not graze on it.