Finally The Time That We Were All Waiting For----

Dear Blog Followers,

Tuesday, August 10th, was a very cloudy day at our project site. However, that did not bother us as we were too excited. That was the day when the farmers from Thippalapura sold the collected dried Jatropha seeds from the project site to us! We were eagerly waiting for this day. We wanted to show the farmers that we meant what we had said two years ago. We would buy the seeds that they collected at the market price. Here are some of the pictures of the entire process.

One of the farmer leaders took the initiative of establishing a rural seed bank. He had established a very interesting protocol . Instead of each farmer selling the seeds to us independently, he convinced them to work together. The farmers took the collected seeds to the "Seed Bank" where they were bought for RS.7/Kg. He stored them in a dry place in his home and patiently waited for us to purchase them. They had collected 80 Kg of seeds. We paid Rs. 10 per kg so, he made a profit of Rs.3 per Kg!

Once we reached the "Seed Bank", we realized that we needed a weighing machine! Neither we nor the villagers had a weighing machine. It was no big deal though. We had to make an extra trip to the nearby rice mill in Hunsur, where we used their weighing machine to weigh the seeds. The farmers had collected 80 kg seeds. We were very happy with the amount collected. This was the first transaction that has taken place. This was the first time we bought the seeds from the farmers proving to them that we are in this for a long haul. They were very happy and we were very excited to buy the seeds.

The next step was to take the seeds to Labland Biotechs to extract the biofuel. We transported the seeds to Labland Biotechs. There, they will first determine the amount of oil content in the seeds before extraction. This time, we are going to get the oil converted into biodiesel and then distribute to the selected farmer leaders to do the test runs. Unfortunately we could not be there for the production of biodiesel because it was time for us to return to CA. We have made arrangements for our farmer leaders to collect the biodiesel from Labland Biotechs through the help of Parivarthana staff once the biodiesel is ready. I will update the results of the test runs once I have the results.

Honestly, we did not expect to see 80 Kg of seeds collected as most of the plants are just one year old. Since it was the first year, we never anticipated any yield, even if they had been pruning the plants as suggested. However, when we reached Labland Biotechs, their reaction was surprising to us. Adarsha will share their perspective in his blog post in a day or two.
~Apoorva

65% Survival Rate for Phase I and Phase II Jatropha Plants

Dear followers of Project Jatropha,

During our recent visit to India this summer (August 2010), we found out that the survival rate of the Phase I and Phase II Jatropha plants was 65%, which is pretty good-higher than I had anticipated. The dead plants were replaced with gap filling-a number which amounted to around 5000 plants. However, when we told Labland Biotechs the survival rate, they were surprised: Labland was expecting a survival rate of around 98%, which is what they had gotten while growing the plants in the field. Earlier, when we got the number of plants that survived from the farmers, they also provided us with the reasons for the plant deaths. In general, the farmers attributed their plant losses to erratic rainfall, which had been happening. However, upon closer inspection of several farmers' fields, this explanation did not quite make sense. We’d see two plots, each containing Jatropha (as a hedge or in the form of bunds), side by side. One plot would have Jatropha plants that were four or five feet high and fruiting (with multiple branches), while the other plot would have fewer plants, and the surviving plants would only be two or three foot high stalks with absolutely no fruit whatsoever. If erratic rainfall had been the cause of the dead plants, then two plots right next to each other should have had similarly sized plants. Labland Biotechs believes that the farmers did not take as good care of the plants as they should have, leading to the decreased survival rates. The plants that were closer to the cash crops of the farmers were the ones that grew better, which makes sense since the farmers would take care of the cash crops nearby. We hope that the gap filling will make up for the lost seedlings.

For Jatropha Plants Survival Data please click here!
Sincerely,
Adarsha

Project Jatropha's goal is not limited to promoting Jatropha cultivation

Dear friends,

Adarsha and I have returned from our India trip. Sorry, we could not blog our adventures as we had no access what so ever to Internet! I remember, last year, I could blog a few times during our stay. This year, as we had only three weeks time, we had to stay put and work at the project site. We have made several interesting journal entries and will be blogging them in the coming weeks. Overall, it was a very productive visit.

Where ever we went, the journalists had one question/concern that we never anticipated. Though we clarified it over and over, I thought of sharing it with you all. The name Project Jatropha often caused confusion in the urban areas. People thought that we were promoting only Jatropha cultivation and we were bombarded with concerns about mono-cropping and its limitations. Actually when we launched this project, we were much younger. This was just a social experiment. We did not have big plans. We thought of trying this out by giving a possible alternative to tobacco cultivation. We never asked the farmers to give up tobacco in entirety. As we initially introduced Jatropha, Adarsha came up with the name Project Jatropha and at that time it was a suitable name. Once the project took off, we did a lot of research on other biofuel sources. We have included Pongamea and are in the process of introducing Simaruba, a novel biofuel plant. We will share more information about this useful plant in a separate blog post. Project Jatropha not only promotes the cultivation of Jatropha and other biofuel plants but also aims to provide environmental education to students of rural schools. We have done massive planting of useful forestry saplings to prevent deforestation involving scores of youth in the villages near Hunsur. This was a great experience. We have planted more than 25,000 forestry saplings involving 33 schools and 300 farmers by the end of this summer. Adarsha and I will blog our individual school stories in the coming weeks. We are very happy that our visit was very successful.
~Apoorva

Thank you CPS and BVB volunteers!

Dear readers of our blog,
Mission Accomplished! I am very happy to inform you all that the tree planting at Gowdagere Higher Primary School is completed. On July 1st, the students and teachers of CPS (Oakland, California) and BVB (Mysore, India) came together to launch the 2010 Global Call to Youth: Tree Planting Venture in rural schools. Mr. Rajegowda, secretary of Parivarthana, gave us a summary of events. The volunteers reached the school at 11 A.M. The headmaster of Gowdagere School, Mr. Mahadevaiah, and the school development management committee president, Mr. Doddaiah Nayaka, welcomed the volunteers. Altogether, 125 forestry saplings were planted. Teak, Silver Oak, Pongamia, Neem, Moringa, Papaya, Curry Leaf Plant(Murraya koenigii), and Ashoka were some of the varieties that were planted. The students also watered and added manure (vermi-compost). By 1 P.M., the planting work was completed. The Project Jatropha Team provided lunch for all the volunteers. According to Mr. Rajegowda, the volunteers mingled well with the Gowdagere School Kids. The language barrier was overcome as the BVB students acted as translators.

The CPS Volunteers

Mr. Andy Dean planting Jatropha

After finishing the tree planting, the volunteers visited the Jatropha plots of several Phase I & II farmers to assess the project's progress. They saw the different models such as intercrop, wasteland, regular land, and bunds. Mr. Andy Dean and a few CPS students symbolically planted three Jatropha seedlings in Mr. Santosh, a Phase II farmer for gap filling. Now, we are half way through the tree planting in the rural schools. When we visit the project site in August, we plan on completing our target of 30 schools for 2010. The supervision, guidance, watering, fencing, manuring, weeding, and plant protection will be done by the respective schools' students.

On behalf of the Project Jatropha Team, I would like to thank the volunteers for making this a HUGE success.

~Apoorva

Welcome CPS and Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Student Volunteers to Our Project Site!

Dear blog readers,

I am so excited to inform you all that it's a big day at our project site in India tomorrow. Our friends from The College Preparatory School (CPS) in collaboration with the students of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan will be participating in the tree planting program as a part of the Global Call to Youth venture. I have to admit that I am a bit disappointed that we are not there to welcome them to the project site personally. Under the leadership of Mr. Rajegowda, the secretary of Parivarthana, we have chosen Gavadagere Higher Primary School (meaning middle school in the USA). We have chosen to plant to teak, silver oak, and pongamia saplings. The plan is to plant roughly 120 saplings. I hope that it's not going to rain heavily, but we have worked at the project site during heavy rains and it's quite fun! Especially to Adarsha, because he loves to jump in muddy puddles. :)

After the tree planting, the volunteers are going to visit Phase I and II fields. The farmers tell us that there are no ripe fruits at this time of year due to recent pruning. However, they can still see small unripe fruits. I hope that they can see the dried seeds collected by the farmers, but I'm afraid that the seeds have been sold recently to Labland Biotechs.

I can't wait to update you all about this venture once it takes place!

~Apoorva

Researchers find clues for developing biodegradable plastics from jatropha

Bangalore, June 08, 2010 : In a major discovery, the Central Salt & Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSMCRI), Bhavnagar, India, has found a microbe useful in the manufacture of biodegradable plastic from aside-stream product of jatropha called ‘glycerol’, which is found during extracting biodiesel from the plant seeds. The Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR)-led Institute is all set to scale up its commercial production. It is considered as a revolutionary advancement that is poised to tackle the challenge of ever-increasing environmental pollution posed by non-degradable plastics. As part of the Budapest Treaty on international recognition of deposit of microorganisms for patent procedure, the identified microbe has been deposited by CSMCRI with a repository. In another significant development, General Motors in partnership with the US Department of Energy (DOE) is developing a new16-hectare plot and an existing 30-hectare jatropha farm in Bhavnagar. The joint DOE-GM funding would enable the CSMCRI to manage various activities at these farms. It is envisaged that lab-optimized strains of jatropha, produced through selective and marker-assisted breeding, would be cultivated at these farms. A complete life cycle analysis of jatropha plant would also help in evaluating the environmental impacts on this oil-yielding crop.

Dear friends,

I was very excited about this news and wanted to share with you all. We at Project Jatropha have been very busy with the project work. We will be updating our work though the blog posts as the summer is here.
Sincerely,
Adarsha