A report by the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) found that in 2008 Jatropha was planted on about 900 000 hectares globally, the bulk — 760 000 hectares — in Asia, along with 120 000 hectares in Africa and 20 000 in Latin America (www. fao. org/ docrep/012/i1219e/i1219e02.pdf). However, the report estimates that by 2015 Jatropha planting will have risen more than 10 times to 12.8 million hectares worldwide. The main finding of the "Reality Check” is that Jatropha is not eco­nomically viable when grown by smallholders (e. g., in Kenya), either in a monoculture or intercrop plantation model. This is due to low yields and high production costs, and a lack ofguidelines for applying agronomic and silvicultural best practices. Hundreds of farmers interviewed for the study spoke of extremely low yields and uneconomical production costs. Many had paid as much as $12-20/kg for seeds, but received little or no advice on crop management and were unable to access markets for the small number of seeds harvested. They chose to abandon the Jatropha they had planted. The reality is that Jatropha is still essentially a semiwild plant, and as such its seed yields, oil quality, and oil content are all highly variable. Considerable research is needed into the agronomy of Jatropha and crop improvement. The FAO/IFAD report recommends short-term research focused on producing superior clonal plants, with longer-term work on developing improved varieties with reliable trait expression, and a seed production system that ensures farmers have access to productive and reliable planting materials.

The highly respected company GEXSI published a study with its view on all of the Jatropha projects developing between 2008 and 2015 (www. jatropha-platform .org). The major share of plantings around the equator will be in Asia with 104 projects covering 9.2 million hectares (Figure 3.3).

3.3.5