“Couple Oil Crop Cultivation” Technology for Biodiesel Crop Production

The Centre for Jatropha Promotion (CJP) recently announced "a breakthrough in the search for viable alternative feedstocks for biodiesel in combination with Jatropha." According to CJP Director for Plant Science, R.R. Sharma, the Center has been experimenting on different intercropping options, patterns and agro-technologies, in an effort to utilize Jatropha-planted land in a sustainable manner. They focused on searching an inter-crop for Jatropha which: (1) should be oil bearing like Jatropha itself, without competing with it for food and water and (2) should be capable of fulfilling Jatropha fertilizer requirement and still maintaining soil fertility. They were able to finally find the couple crop and termed the technology they developed as "Couple Oil Crop Cultivation (COC) Technology". One hectare of cultivated land using the COC technology is reported to have an oil yield of 1,350 gallons. The commercial cultivation of the couple crop is to be released soon.

Related information: Center for Jatropha Promotion website http://www.jatrophaworld.org/