Gallery
Watch it grow
Sustainable Fuel and Development |
Environment |
| Clive Coker, CEO Jatropha Africa sets out our sustainable development approach to business, as 'adding value in three dimensions: People - the social impact of company operations, to people who come into contact with us; Planet - the impact of our operations on the environment in the broad sense; Profit - adding economic value through profit sharing agreements with village councils.' Our way of working creates various benefits; | Jatropha oil is a renewable energy source. Using the oil is CO2 neutral, this helps reduce the rise in the level of CO2 in the atmosphere. Because the presscake can be used as an energy source as well, for example for cooking, and because only the product of the plant is used and not the whole plant, the Jatropha trees help to prevent deforestation and soil erosion. |
Local farmers |
Local employers |
| Jatropha Africa is working with farmers in Africa, growing Jatropha. We provide farmers with knowledge on the cultivation of Jatropha, and emphasise that it should be grown as a crop in addition to any food they produce. We only plant Jatropha on land which has never been used for food production, or on land where food production has not been successful. |
Growing, harvesting, processing and researching Jatropha provides a lot of local jobs for people from rural communities. This helps to prevent the loss of young people from villages in Ghana.
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Local energy for communities |
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| Local pressing of the seeds to extract Jatropha oil, produces seed cake which can be used as a fertiliser, or converted into charcoal. The oil could be used locally as Pure Plant Oil, to fuel specially modified diesel engines to generate electricity. Through the cultivation of Jatropha rural communities in areas where land is poor of the climate too dry for large scale food production, can be made less dependent on mineral oil derived diesel, and charcoal. Most villages in the areas where we work, have no electricity supplies, other than expensive batteries for radios. | |
