Caution with Jatropha tree

After eagerly planting Jatropha trees to develop biofuels, many units were disappointed to find that this tree was not as effective as introduced.

Meanwhile, according to the goal of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) in the period of 2008-2010, experimentation and testing of about 30,000 ha of Jatropha, in 2015 expanded about 300,000 ha and in 2025 reached 500,000 hectares. Therefore, some scientists have warned, should be careful not to expand the area planted and need to study deeply about this plant.

Low economic efficiency?

A few years ago, the story of Jatropha tree with announcements with many 'preeminent' characteristics in cultivation and economic efficiency has made many units choose this tree to invest. Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development also included in the list of 3 key crops that need to be researched and tested bio-energy processing products.

A series of projects have been invested in this plant. Up to now, there are dozens of units planting Jatropha in many different ecological regions with an area of ​​up to hundreds of hectares.

However, after a period of experimenting to plant this kind of tree, Mr. Nguyen Hoang Tuyen, Chairman of the Board of Hoang Khang Company - the unit that has spent the past 6 years to invest in growing this tree, said: 'The previous benefit The eye is taken advantage of Jatropha tree planted on fallow land, can help cover the bare land, bare hills, but if planted with the purpose of taking oil, the economic efficiency is very small '.

Mr. Tuyen explained: with Jatropha tree, want to have efficiency, it needs to invest and cultivate, so it will not be profitable. 'To get 1kg of oil, it is necessary to have 3kg of Jatropha seeds (1kg of Jatropha seeds is currently priced at 6,000 VND). With this price only for raw materials alone, the output product has suffered losses, not to mention the extraction and distribution technology, ' Tuyen said.

The economic ability of Japotra plants still needs further research.Photo: Nhu Y.

Similar to Mr. Tuyen's company, over the past 4 years, Mr. Mai Quoc Thai, owner of a farm in Ho Chi Minh City, has also experimented with planting Jatropha trees. For intercropping more than 50ha with wind plants to cover the grass, Mr. Thai calculated: every 3kg of new Jatropha seeds for 1kg of oil, from which new diesel oil sold for more than 10,000 VND / liter, so 1kg of Jatropha seeds only cost VND 3,000. So is not economical.

'If choosing this as a material for biodiesel will be ineffective,' Thai said. From the experiments on Mr. Thai and Mr. Tuyen gave up the idea of ​​continuing to plant Jatropha.

Do not rush to expand the area

Previously, many people highly appreciated and strongly judged about the productivity of Jatropha trees when they said that 1 hectare of Jatropha trees yielded 8-12 tons of seeds per year. However, through the last test, Mr. Thai said, the current grain yield of this plant is not high. '50 ha Jatropha only has enough seeds to provide for growers' research, Thai said.

Also according to the announcement of Thanh Tay University (Ha Dong - Hanoi), 1ha Jatropha of the school in recent years has also yielded less than expected. Currently only 0.8% of the land area has trees over 1,000 fruits, and 99.2% of the land area for trees has no fruits or fruits with less than 1,000 fruits / tree. Thus, it is difficult to yield 1 ton / ha but not high productivity.

According to Dr. Ngo Thi Lam Giang, Research Institute for Oil and Oil Plants, Jatropha is still a wild, half wild, new plant that turns into a short-term crop. Research material on this tree is too sketchy, especially in terms of economics. Many materials on books and newspapers about productivity and economic efficiency of this plant are still based on the deductions of some scientists and businesses, not enough reliability.

The use of kg / tree yield data multiplied by the number of trees / ha to announce grain yield / ha year, is easy to cause confusion, because in agriculture, it is not possible to use individual yield to yield pants. to persuade producers, especially farmers.

Facing the fact that many units and individuals are still rushing to plant Jatropha because they think that "trees are easy to grow, suitable for both wilderness and drought", many scientists warn. According to Dr. Truong Vinh, Nong Lam University in Ho Chi Minh City, Jatropha trees grow wild, easy to live, the drought area is also right. But in order to deploy to grow oil, it is necessary to take into account the economic efficiency, which must be intensified. Can not grow on barren land, excess land that requires high performance.

And Dr. Ngo Thi Lam Giang said that the fact that dozens of domestic and foreign companies are involved in the development of oil crops, but each independent development is very worrying when there is no synchronous research program. Dr. Giang said that it is necessary to have a synchronous development direction, paying special attention to planning areas, land fund and selecting good varieties. 'Should not rush to expand the area, there should be deep research on this plant,' Dr. Giang said.

The fence poles (Japotra) also originate from India, belonging to the Castor family. Trees are present in Vietnam since the 14th century but people only plant along the fence. Extruded oil can be mixed with petroleum diesel at a rate of 0.5 - 20% to increase the efficiency and reduce the harmful effects of diesel oil.