Phase IV of Project Jatropha-with pictures!

Hello readers!

Pictured above are Bala and international volunteers (from England) planting Jatropha seedlings in the rural school mentioned in my previous blog post (this school is located 30 minutes away from Pondicherry, which is in the state of Tamil Nadu). The Jatropha seedlings were purchased with funds provided by Dr. Anuradha Rajput, who is the General Manager for the Bangalore ICON Laboratories. These photos are from Phase IV of Project Jatropha-where we are expanding to rural schools (in this, in the school Bala was working with), advocating fruit gardens and Jatropha planting. We've found out that the youth are particularly responsive to these efforts-many of them have rarely seen fruit in their lifetimes, and they particularly love the opportunity to grow plants  (that are not tobacco) for non-business purposes. Wherever we've planted and given fruit plants to youth, they've maintained excellent care of the plants and show great enthusiasm. It's always heartening to see a kid stand next to a plant they have taken responsibility for and gesture to show how much the plant has grown in a certain amount of time. This is why we're also seeing if Jatropha can be incorporated into our efforts-hopefully, the kids will have equal enthusiasm for taking care of Jatropha! The Jatropha is primarily being grown as a hedge crop again (this also helps protect the fruit plants from being eaten by roaming cows and goats), but if everything goes well, we hope to have the kids sell the Jatropha seeds they collect. Again, that's a long term goal and it remains to be seen if everything will work out, but we're hopeful!

~Adarsha

An update from Bala from Pondicherry

Hello readers of this blog, and random people of the internet!

If you all recall, last summer, when Apoorva and I were in India, we went to the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu, and visited Pondicherry. The reason was that earlier that year, we had been in contact with a man named Bala, who graduated as an engineer many years ago in India. After he graduated from college, he decided that instead of going abroad and working there, his talents would be more needed back in his home town of Pondicherry. Earlier, Bala had been trying to work with rural school children in a village 30 minutes away from Pondicherry by providing them with rural gardens and the like. However, he had some logistical issues, including funding. He contacted us back in 2010, and in the summer of 2012 we had enacted our plans. We went to Pondicherry and together, we purchased various young fruit saplings and helped plant them-with the help of a group of international volunteers from around the world (who Bala had managed to round up a while earlier)-in a local school. Afterwards, we contacted Labland Biotechs to see if they could give Bala some agronomic training regarding Jatropha.

Just a few days ago, we received some photos from Bala-the ones in this blog post are of him receiving agronomic training from Labland Biotechs. Over the course of 6 days, Bala witnessed and learned a good deal. At Labland Biotechs, Bala got to see various Jatropha plots on farms and in larger facilities, learning the various methods and needs of Jatropha. In addition, Bala got to see and practice firsthand the biofuel extraction and biodiesel conversion processes. Tissue culturing, seed harvest, seed processing, storage, and byproduct management were among the other things that Labland Biotechs showed Bala.

If you have any questions or comments/constructive criticism, feel free to post in the comments section or shoot me an email if you so desire! The next blog post will be about Project Jatropha's Phase IV, and how it has been initiated-pictures included!

~Adarsha