One of the previous entries in the blog elaborated about the problems with Jatropha propagation and the need for tissue culture for ramping up Jatropha business. The persistent inconsistencies associated with macro propagation makes tissue culture a must need for Jatropha’s success.
JOil, a Singapore based company which is a joint venture between Temasek Life Sciences and Tata Chemicals have come up with remarkable success in developing over two million Jatropha tissue culture plants in different regions of the world (India, China, Philippines, Thailand, Kenya etc)
Mass production of Jatropha would get a big boost once this technology is scaled up successfully. Improvements in performance of the plant through specific breeding programs have always remained to be futile attempts. Giant companies like BP have records of abandoning attempts for Jatropha micro propagation due to uncertainties about commercial viabilities. But JOil is genuinely catalyzing a turnaround for biofuel industry. Joil is in talks with other companies such as Yoma Strategic Holdings, Europhtonic Group, Trafigura Biofuels etc to partner with them so as to improve the plantation operations.
The initial market for the Jatropha plants will be India, although JOil is also targeting the Philippines and Thailand – where it recently appointed Toyota Tsusho Corp as its sales representative, and with which it is also working to set up nurseries and tissue culture facilities there. Another target market is Kenya and Mozambique in East Africa, through partner Tata Chemicals
