PLANTATION MODEL.
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With the right plantation model and parameters in place CJO can be produced sustainably while minimizing impacts on food crops and fresh water usage.
JATRO promotes and implements a well balanced plantation model which achieves social and economic goals in addition to fulfilling reforestation mandates. Usually, local farming communities are involved as laborers to plant Jatropha on non-arable, marginal and waste land as well as degraded forest lands. In return for their labor, they are allowed to cultivate food crops in between rows of trees of Jatropha saplings for 2 -3 years before the denser Jatropha canopy forms. It provides both,
- a means of self-sustaining poverty eradication for landless farmers through the cultivation of organically-grown short-term cash crops, as well as
- a means of ensuring a beneficial and controlled cultivation of jatropha in the pre-cropping phase with no on-going cost to the developer.
The Company’s fully integrated energy crop plantation model covers all aspects of the jatropha value chain. The seamless integration of large scale jatropha cultivation, efficient oil milling capacity and the production of premium biofuel, together with downstream waste recycling activities in a single enterprise are key components.
At the same time, this plantation model offers advantages to investors as it has been designed to achieve the commercial cultivation of Jatropha in the least capital intensive way.