JATROPHA CURCAS CULTIVATION IN NORTH AFRICAN COUNTRIES: THE CASE STUDY OF THE JATROMED PROJECT

The potentials of Jatropha curcas L. under the pedo-climatic and socio-economic conditions of low income rural sites of Egypt, Morocco and Algeria are investigated by the 4-year EU funded JatroMed project (www.jatromed.aua.gr). The aim of the project is to demonstrate to small farmers, rural communities and stakeholders the possibility to cover their energy needs with jatropha's bio-oil, and to make them familiar with the crop cultivation and the multiple uses of the produced oil and by-products. For that purpose demonstration fields have been established next to small villages without or with limited access to electricity and eight jatropha genotypes are evaluated. Each genotype is cultivated in 1 ha and is treated with different fertilization, irrigation and pruning combinations. Apart from that, a harvest device is under development and is validated by field tests. The socioeconomic and environmental impact assessment is accomplished. A "training the trainers" event for agronomists, stakeholders, etc, and three seminars targeted to farmers, rural population, women, etc, is organized every year in each target country. The results so far showed that jatropha seems to be an ideal energy crop for low income rural areas to cover the energy needs of poor farmers and small villagers having limited access to other energy sources.