Trouble brews in India’s jatropha industry; failed crops, cattle poisoning

In India, reports are surfacing of trouble for the country’s nascent jatropha oil industry. Inter Press service is reporting that less than half of 290 million jatropha saplings planed on 1.6 million hectares in Chhattisgarh have survived; other reports of poisoned cattle from eating jatropha leaves have surfaced, as well as concerns raised over the impact on small farmers of vast tracts of fallow land given away to jatropha ventures. More than 10 states in India have jatropha ventures, which have soaked up a reported $332 in public and private investment. Some local farmers are reporting better results from growing pongamia for biodiesel.

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