Jatropha remains productive for up to 40 years as it also absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The jatropha carcus tree, if exploited, will not only relieve Uganda of dependency on fossil fuels from oil producing Arab countries but may also go a long way in becoming a major source of income
It is around us on the hedges of our homesteads, in the garden supporting other climbing plants and acting as fences for cattle kraals. While we complain about the ever-increasing fuel prices, we do not know that we are sitting on a rich oil shrub.
This amazing shrub is the jatropha carcus tree locally known as ekiroowa in Luganda and among the Langi’s as Omara Omara. The plant naturally produces seeds with up to 30-40 percent oil content, a source of fuel.
When dried and crushed, the seeds yield oil, which can be burned in most diesel engines, Reuters reported. A commissioner for energy at the ministry of Energy and Mineral Development Eng Ben Todwo confirms that jatropha seeds can be processed into biomass to power electricity plants, hence substitute for kerosene for lighting and heating in homes.
The seedlings of this shrub yield seeds in the first year after plantation but begins yielding oil in the second year. After the first five years, the typical annual yield of a jatropha tree weighs 3.5 kilograms.
Jatropha remains productive for up to between 30 and 40 years as it also absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Hence one who has it in his garden or kraal could also earn from the sale of carbon absorbed by it if Uganda starts exploiting this other source of income.
One can harvest one up to 25 tones of processed oil, rising to a maximum of 12.5 tones in the fourth year. Research shows that 2,200 trees can be planted per hectare (approx 1,000 per acre) where one hectare should yield around seven tones of seeds per year. So one hectare of land should yield around 2.2-2.7 tones of oil.
The oil pressed from four kilograms of seeds is needed to make one liter of biodiesel for running diesel engine vehicles. The member of Parliament for Maruzzi County in Apac District Mr David Ebong says this plant has a big potential for large business enterprises and that it comes at a time when the cabinet of Uganda has approved renewable energy policy where all petroleum companies in Uganda will be required to blend their fossil fuels (oil) with 20 percent plant oil/biodisel.
A plant pathologist who heads the Cereals Research program at the National Agricultural Research Organization Dr George Bigirwa, says there is big potential for business in Jatropha carcus as the shrub can grow almost everywhere in Uganda.
“It can grow even on marginal lands like sandy, saline and on the poorest stony soil,“ he says.
This plant is not only important for biodisel, it also enhances soil productivity.
“When oil is squeezed out of the plant seeds, the refuse (seed cake) can be taken back to gardens and range lands as organic manure for it is rich in nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium,“ says an expert in biofuels based at the National Forestry Authority John Begumana.
Mr Begumana argues that the fertility value of Jatropha carcus to the soil can only be compared to chicken droppings and therefore has the potential of increasing the carrying capacity of grazing lands.
He gives an impression that one who chooses to deal in it can actually get income from the sale of the seeds and higher yields from the soil.
The shrub originated from the Caribbean and spread as a valuable hedge plant to Africa and Asia by Portuguese traders.
Today it is widely used in India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Egypt as a quick growing source of oil-bearing nuts that can be pressed to produce biodiesel for running cars.

An old Midwestern maxim deems a corn crop healthy if it’s ``knee-high by the fourth of July.’’
Yet when it comes to the expectations that corn-based ethanol will cure America’s dependence on foreign oil, the hype is way over everyone’s head.
Running the numbers on how much land could be put into production for corn-based ethanol makes it clear how little of the fuel could be produced to help curb America’s energy gluttony, Bloomberg said.
There isn’t enough suitable land for corn growing to make a significant dent in America’s voracious energy needs. Yet that hasn’t stopped ethanol investors or a wave of irrational exuberance from Wall Street to Brazil. You can see the ethanol frenzy at more and more gasoline stations.
The number of fueling outlets providing gasoline with ``E85,’’ or gas containing 85 percent ethanol, is now more than 1,200, compared with less than 750 stations last year, to service more than 4.5 million flexible-fuel vehicles, according to the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition. There are 110 ethanol plants running in the US, with 73 more under construction.
Bolstered by President George W. Bush in his State-of-the- Union speech, it’s projected that US ethanol production will reach 35 billion gallons per year in a decade--double the current level.
Yet there’s a resource issue that’s rarely mentioned in all of the ethanol cheerleading.
In order to grow corn, you need lots of land, water, fertilizer and fuel. Most of the commodity is cultivated in Iowa and Illinois where the rainfall is usually sufficient and the soil rich enough for high-yield corn.
Say you were able to cultivate every acre of Illinois for corn-based ethanol. This is purely hypothetical as it would involve bulldozing Chicago and other cities and towns in the Prairie State. As an Illinois resident surrounded by cornfields, fleeing demolition is not my relocation fantasy.
One of the potentially most productive corn-growing states on the planet would yield about 5.7 billion bushels of corn and 16 billion gallons of ethanol, according to Charles Washburn, professor emeritus at California State University in Flagstaff, Arizona. He has researched the subject over the past 45 years.
The Illinois mega-crop would provide only 0.8 percent of annual US gasoline and diesel-fuel use, Washburn estimates, subtracting the energy it takes to create ethanol.
Of course, US energy consumption isn’t a static beast. Washburn further projects that ``a new corn field the size of Illinois would be required to meet our transportation energy growth every seven months.’’
Even if every bushel of US corn, wheat, rice and soybean were used to produce ethanol, it would only cover about 4 percent of US energy needs on a net basis, Washburn estimates.
The US, in its quest to reduce its reliance on expensive imported oil, may soon consume as much as half its domestic corn crop for fuel production, though the economic benefits have yet to materialize. Ethanol produces one-third less energy than a gallon of gasoline at an average wholesale cost of 33 percent more, according to a US Government Accountability Office study.
The demand for corn bound for ethanol use has farmers planting more of the golden kernels than they have in 63 years on more than 90 million acres.
Since corn growing is energy- and fertilizer-intensive, that means more water pollution and less corn for food stocks.
Most fertilizer is produced from natural gas, a byproduct of oil drilling that is rising in price.
The other byproduct of the ethanol obsession is more- expensive food. Higher corn prices have boosted the cost of producing beef, poultry and thousands of processed products.
Food prices have climbed an average of $47 per person due to the ethanol surge since last July, price futures reached a 10-year high of $4.28 a bushel in February. All told, ethanol has cost Americans an additional $14 billion in higher food prices.
These increases have also pushed up sugar prices, which rose to a three-month high in New York on July 18 on speculation that demand for the commodity will strengthen to help produce ethanol, an alternative to oil. Brazil is the largest sugar grower.
Meanwhile, the US government has yet to discover whether its 51-cent-per-gallon ethanol subsidy is efficiently stimulating production of the fuel. One thing the bureaucrats know for sure: It cost the US Treasury $2.7 billion last year with possibly more subsidies on the way.
The ethanol reality hasn’t fully sunk in on Wall Street. The ABN Amro Biofuels Index has fallen 3 percent this year. Houston-based Gulf Ethanol Corp., which has a market value of about $24 million, has gained 40 percent.
Archer Daniels Midland Co., based in Decatur, Illinois, has added 14 percent. It is the largest US processor of ethanol.
Those who bet exclusively on ethanol will suffer the same fate as those investors who took the plunge on fiber-optic, Internet and computer-router companies in the late 1990s. They will concentrate their risk when prices are at a peak--and then get burned.
For a broader sampling of biofuel and alternative-energy stocks, try an exchange-traded fund such as Market Vectors Global Alternative Energy ETF, which tracks a basket of companies that invest in wind, solar and biofuel technologies, or the Powershares Wilderhill Clean Energy Portfolio.

In a bid to cut energy use, Maryland became just the fourth state in the nation to approve a plan that removes the incentive for electric utilities to sell more power in order to make more money.
In a rate case ruling issued yesterday, the Maryland Public Service Commission endorsed an approach known as decoupling, which ensures that utilities do not lose revenue if customers use less electricity, Washingtonpos.com said.
“The fact that Maryland has undertaken this step is clear evidence that states are going to be ramping up their own programs to take energy efficiency to new levels,“ said Jim Owen, a spokesman for the Edison Electric Institute, a utility industry association.
Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), facing criticism over steep rate hikes for 1.1 million Baltimore Gas and Electric customers, has set a goal of reducing Maryland’s energy demand by 15 percent by 2015. Cutting electricity use will help the state cut its greenhouse gas emissions.
California is the only state where decoupling has been in effect for years, and energy experts say that it is one reason why the state uses less electricity per person than any other state. Earlier this year, Idaho and New York approved decoupling measures.

Oil spillage in the Niger-Delta coastal communities has been described as being at the root of the never ceasing frosty relationship between oil multinationals and their host communities in recent times with its attendant violence and blood-letting. Sometimes the spill is traced to wanton acts of vandalisation from unknown persons while at other times it has been discovered to be due to the age of the pipes that have remained buried underground for donkey years. Whatever is the cause of oil spill at any point, one danger that stares all in the face is the damage to the flora and fauna of the coastal communities not to mention the immediate loss of the means of livelihood of the riverine people-fishing and subsistence farming. It has been alleged that from the onset of the discovery of any leakage, communities usually do not alert the oil companies for prompt action to check the spread so as to derive maximum benefit from the windfall even at their own risk.
It has also been discovered that some of these oil firms fail to take prompt action when informed of a spill due to fear of the youths from the communities or lack of the equipment to contain the spread. Penultimate week, a storage tank at the Warri Refinery and Petrochemicals Company, WRPC, into which Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, pumps the highly inflammable condensate, a by-product of petrol into, collapsed and spilled its content into the tidal Ubeji community river from where it flowed freely to the neighbouring Ifie-Kporo, Ifie-Tie, Aja-Etan and Jallah rivers before it went up in flames, leaving in its trail close to a six kilometre stretch of burnt mangrove forest at low tide, more than 15 water-craft and loss of other fishing gears of the hapless Ubeji people who share common boundary with the refinery that flares gas 24 hours daily and discharges its effluents into the rivers and associated creeks, allAfrica.com reported.
Sunday Vanguard investigations revealed that the WRPC has been discharging its oil waste and other dangerous effluents into the Ubeji river for some years now from where they flow freely into the Warri river and its adjoining creeks and communities to the knowledge of the company and both state and Federal Ministries of Environment. The Ubeji people of the Itsekiri ethnic nationality, being a peaceful group, have been tolerant and non-violent in the face of this perennial assault on them that clearly smacks of disregard to their collective health and well being.
Before the latest oil spill and fire disaster, Mr. Eyitemi Brown-Dibofu and Mr. Alex Dorti, representing 27 oil impacted Itsekiri communities, had taken the issue of pollution of the Warri river and its adjoining creeks by WRPC before the Federal Ministry of Environment and Petroleum at Abuja, compelling two former ministers, Dr. Edmound Dakoru and Chief Helen Esuene, to visit the company in February 2007. Their visit was quite revealing such that after inspecting the WRPC sludge pits and their discharge outlets, Dakoru stated that the situation was unacceptable, noting that something needed to be done urgently and, therefore, ensured that contract for the clean-up of the entire environment was awarded. And it was awarded for over N1.7b before he left office. Indeed, due to non-release of fund to the contractor, the clean-up exercise meant to have commenced last month was stalled before the recent spill and fire thus compounding the whole problem.
Sunday Vanguard gathered that if the WRPC had responded swiftly when the leakage was first reported to them by the leaders of the community, the unfortunate incident would have been averted. Hon. Griftson Omatsuli, chairman of the six-man Ubeji community committee set up to liaise with the WRPC in the handling of the matter, told Sunday Vanguard that they noticed the spill some days before and duly reported to the company which did nothing about it, noting that on the day of the incident when they discovered that the rate of spill had increased, they sent people to the WRPC early in the morning to complain but no visible action was taken until the evening when the spilled condensate went up in flames.

Power demand rose to a record in Taiwan last week, and the country said it would favor plans for coal-fired stations when it awarded permits to build new capacity next year because coal plants are cheaper to run and easier to supply than plants fueled by gas.
“It looks like we’ll have to rely on coal,“ Chan Wen-hong, an executive officer at the Bureau of Energy in Taipei, said last week. Taiwan Power spends 1.32 New Taiwan dollars, or 4 US cents, to generate a kilowatt-hour of electricity by burning coal, less than half the 2.94 dollars involved in gas-fired production, according to the company’s chief engineer, Tu Yueh-yuan, Bloomberg.com reported.
Taiwan has invited bids to build power plants to stave off the threat of possible shortages, made worse by a ban on building new nuclear power plants. The island’s reserve margin, or spare capacity at times of peak demand, dropped to 6.9 percent last week, less than half of a state target of 16 percent.
The government will issue permits to build 1,980 megawatts of capacity, enough to meet 5 percent of the island’s peak summer electricity demand. Tenders will close on Dec. 5, and the government is likely to name two or three contract winners before the end of February next year, Chan, of the Energy Bureau, said.
Units of Formosa Plastics Group, CPC and Taiwan Cement are among the seven companies that have approached state-run Taiwan Power to connect their planned power stations to the utility’s grid, Tu, the chief engineer, said.
“The choice of coal is pragmatic,“ Jeffrey Bor, economist at Taipei’s Chung-hua Institution for Economic Research, said Friday. “Coal is the only reliable fuel for power in Taiwan.“ Gas-fired power plants are less favored because of shortages of the fuel and the time needed to build pipelines, he said.
CPC, Taiwan’s only natural gas importer, said in April that it planned to buy a record number of liquefied natural gas cargoes on short-term contracts or for immediate delivery to meet a supply shortfall. The island’s demand for the fuel is forecast to rise 5 percent to 8 million metric tons this year and CPC has long-term agreements for only 5.6 million tons.
The government last awarded a permit to an independent thermal power plant, not built by Taiwan Power, in April 2005. The island has eight similar stations in operation, including those owned by units of Formosa Plastics, CPC and Taiwan Cement.
The island wants to add coal-fired capacity at a time when prices are near record levels. Prices for Australian thermal coal, an Asian benchmark for power station fuel, reached $70.88 a ton, the highest ever, at Newcastle last month as port and rail bottlenecks hampered miners’ efforts to ship production. Demand from China, which became a net coal importer for the first time this year, is also forcing prices higher.