Water needs and productivity of Jatropha curcas in India: myths and facts

Abstract

Jatropha curcas referred as a 'wonder plant' with low water requirement, which can be cultivated on wastelands in dry tropical conditions to provide oil seeds for biodiesel without competing for prime cropland. However, results from experiments and case studies in semi-arid tropical locations in India indicated that evapotranspiration (ET) demand for Jatropha ranges between 750 and 1000 mm under optimal conditions. Jatropha extracted water from soil layer 150 cm below with transpiration requirements of 600-800 mm with increasing age. The yield potential of current genotypes is low (2-3 ton/ha) for realizing the potential of Jatropha cultivation on wastelands subject to limited availability of nutrients and water. Jatropha curcas is drought tolerant, but contrary to belief, it is not a crop that requires less water: in fact, it requires 750-1000 mm water to achieve economic production. However, Jatropha curcas demonstrated good potential for enhancing green water use effi ciency without adversely affecting the blue water component, and for promoting crop management options facilitating carbon sequestration and nutrient recycling when grown on degraded lands. Improved cultivars of Jatropha curcas with synchronized fl owering to enable mechanical harvesting, along with improved land and water management, are needed for harnessing the potential of Jatropha as a commercially viable biofuel crop.

Cooking fuel from Jatropha Curcas feedstock: An experiment based techno‐economic analysis

“…This area is about 49.6% of total barren land of State 5 (109 155 ha) . While all the barren land would not be suitable for Jatropha cultivation due to saline and alkaline conditions, the yield of Jatropha seed could be increased to 3–5 t/ha with improved management and selection of lands with a pH of 6–9, and receiving an average annual rainfall of 900–1200 mm . The average annual rainfall of all the districts of State 5 is about 800–3500 mm.…”

“…Despite utilizing waste land or marginal land, inappropriate soil and climatic conditions result in a lower annual dry Jatropha seed yield of 0.35–2.0 metric ton (t)/ha when compared to expected dry seed yield of 7.8 t/ha . This low yield of dry Jatropha seed could be improved to 3 t/ha in semi‐arid wastelands and to 5 t/ha with soils receiving an average annual rainfall of 900–1200 mm . Furthermore, uncertain markets and the impact of other crop yields due to changes in micro‐climate are other potential problems facing commercial Jatropha farming .…”

“…14 Additionally, Wendimu 14 reported that evaluation of local soil and climatic conditions is required before commercial Jatropha farming. Despite utilizing waste land or marginal land, inappropriate soil and climatic conditions result in a lower annual dry Jatropha seed yield of 0.35-2.0 metric ton (t)/ha 13,[15][16][17][18] when compared to expected dry seed yield of 7.8 t/ha. 19 Th is low yield of dry Jatropha seed could be improved to 3 t/ha in semi-arid wastelands and to 5 t/ha with soils receiving an average annual rainfall of 900-1200 mm.…”

“…19 Th is low yield of dry Jatropha seed could be improved to 3 t/ha in semi-arid wastelands and to 5 t/ha with soils receiving an average annual rainfall of 900-1200 mm. 13,19 Furthermore, uncertain markets and the impact of other crop yields due to changes in micro-climate are other potential problems facing commercial Jatropha farming. 20 Large-scale Jatropha plantation on wastelands could cause problems to downstream water users and ecosystems by reducing run-off generation.…”

Phenotypic diversity in physic nut (Jatropha curcas L.) in vivo germplasm bank for superior parent selection

“…In this context, physic nut is an alternative source because of some of its advantages: the high oil content of its seed, between 22 and 42% (Sunil et al, 2008;Achten et al, 2008), its low production cost, it is an edible crop and meets environmental demands, since its oil contains sulfur in insignificant amounts. The physic nut can reach between 500 and 3000 kg ha -1 depending on genotype and environment (Wani et al, 2016), producing about 2000 kg ha -1 of oil in the fourth year of cultivation, depending on the spacing (Laviola and Dias, 2008). However, the cultivation depends on its domestication in order to achieve higher productivity and production uniformity (Fairless, 2007).…”