Roundtable on Bioenergy Enterprise
in Developing Regions - Jatropha and alike

The Roundtable is a network of centers of excellence that will pull together, analyse and develop materials on:

• Plant and technological requirements, challenges in the production and conversion phases and ways to address them;
  
  
• Business models and ways to help smallholders to get organised, including taking into account environmental and social co-benefits into classical cost-benefit analyses;
  
  
• Barriers to Bioenergy enterprise development and ways to overcome them (financial, agronomical and technological, and political).

Beyond the development of these materials, it is envisaged that the centers of excellence also act as intermediaries in applying them, for example through training and hand-holding services to farmers and entrepreneurs, or advice to regional or local bioenergy planning.

The initiative started with a kick off meeting held on 22 and 23 October 2007 in Paris with number of centers of excellence from Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe, with specific knowledge and hands-on experience in bioenergy, particularly Jatropha. The initiative is open to more partners.

Click here to download the meeting report (PDF - 276 KB) of the kick off meeting and a background paper (PDF - 1,1 MB) on Jatropha (agronomy, conversion technologies, business models, field experiences) that was prepared to inform the discussions.

Jatropha is a shrub of up to 6 m height found throughout the tropics, which produces seeds with an oil (non-edible) content of between 35% and 37%. It receives heightened attention due to its ability to grow on marginal land and with limited rainfall. However, the yields that it produces under these conditions are hardly interesting for an investor looking for quick return on investment.If produced on arable land with fertilizer use and irrigation, Jatropha has to compete with other oil baring plants that have been researched and used for a longer period of time. A lot of material on the agronomy of Jatropha is publicly available, but the content varies considerably. Rigorous research and validation of information as well asknowledge management arecritical to remove information barriers.

Jatropha seeds – the green ones are straight from the bush, the black ones have had the green shell removed, and the white ones have had the black husk removed as well (left), Jatropha seeds on the bush (center); MFC Jatropha plantation in Tiékourabougou, Koulikoro region (right).

However, maximising yields is not all - a balance has to be found between economics, environmental and social concerns, and this over the entire life cycle and for the different types of settings and approaches to allow for informed decision making. Sustainability standards have to be developed tailored to Jatropha, based on general sustainability principles for bioenergy.

For example, in areas with high unemployment, scarce water resources, and little arable land available, Jatropha is without doubt a promising alternative, generating a number of valuable development benefits that should be taken into account in cost-benefit analysis.

As to conversion, there are two broad paths: straight vegetable oil or conversion into biodiesel. Both have advantages and disadvantages, and choices have to be made according to consumer needs. There is not one answer, but spelling out the different options with their benefits and downsides enables decision-makers in governments and private business to make informed decisions.

Different business models can be envisaged for various scales of activity– there is room for small scale and large scale production, both coming with different risks, benefits and requirements. In addition, there is an area of overlap, ensuring participation of small farmers into large scale production, via equity, outgrowers schemes (also known as ‘contract farming’) and other participatory concepts.

No matter which business model, involvement of the local population is critical for any biofuel project to reduce social or environmental risks related to feedstock production, which could lead to rejection and putting investments at risk.

Finally, a number of barriers have been identified that the Roundtable will help to address to spur sustainable Bioenergy enterprise development.

Related Documents

Meeting Report (PDF - 276 KB)   

Background Paper (PDF - 1,1 MB)