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Pankaj Oudhia

http://knol.google.com/k/pankaj-oudhia/pankaj-oudhia/3nerdtj3s9l79/1#

Zimbabwe: Council to Probe Joint Venture Projects

It has also come to light that a joint venture between council and the National
Oil Company of Zimbabwe to establish a jatropha plantation at Cleveland Dam is
non-existent despite glowing reports by town clerk Dr Tendai Mahachi that 20
hectares of jatropha had been planted during the 2007/08 season.

He had reported in an earlier meeting that 150ha were to be planted in the
2008/09 farming season.

But at last Friday's council meeting, councillors made it clear they did not
want to be part of failure.

Clr Pumulani Musagwiza ignited the debate when he declared that the joint
ventures were not benefiting council.

"The joint ventures are not bearing fruit," he said with particular reference to
the jatropha project.

A visit by councillors to Cleveland Dam established that there was no jatropha
plantation except for a few plants that council authorities are now describing
as part of measures to conserve the environment.

The councillors called for the scrapping of the joint venture.

Clr Panganayi Charumbira said some of the joint ventures could not be justified
and should be discontinued.

"I do not want to be part of failure. Some of the decisions on joint ventures do
not make sense," he said.

Mayor Mr Muchadeyi Masunda joined the debate, saying any joint ventures that did
not benefit the council would be dropped.

"We need a critical approach of where we are and whether to continue or drop
them," he said.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200904280530.html

Biofuel-yielding plant being promoted without check

Sunday, April 26, 2009
By By Saad Hasan
KARACHI: Faced by a severe energy crisis, Pakistani authorities in desperate
attempt are promoting an imported shrub which yields non-edible oil for fossil
fuel substitution without establishing if the plant can adapt to domestic
climate, entomologists told The News.

Jatropha Curcas, a source of biodiesel, has not been tested for its resistance
to pest attacks like that from mealy bug, which threatens to harm vital cotton
crop, they said.

“Under plant quarantine rules, foreign plant varieties have to go through
rigorous testing before cultivation is allowed,” said Muhammad Ziauddin,
ex-entomologist of Department for Plant Protection. “No such precaution has
been followed in case of Jatropha.”

Encouraged by its high demand internationally, farmers are planting Jatropha
across the country in spite of a bar on cultivation of imported plant varieties.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=174271

Biofuel plant species can turn aggressive, researchers warn

By Helen Altonn

Biofuel crops being promoted and planted as a "green" renewable solution to
energy needs might actually be aggressive invasive pests, caution University of
Hawaii-Manoa researchers.

They did weed risk assessments to compare invasion risks of 40 biofuel crops
proposed for Hawaii versus a random sample of 40 introduced non-biofuel plant
species.

The researchers found 70 percent of proposed biofuel crops have a high risk of
becoming invasive and are two to four times more likely to establish wild
populations when compared with other introduced plants.

The assessments, funded by the Hawaii Invasive Species Council, included a
plant's biology, geographic origin, pest status elsewhere and information
published on its behavior in Hawaii.

The findings, "Assessing Biofuel Crop Invasiveness: A Case Study," are reported
in the journal PLoS ONE, a Public Library of Science resource.

"You can have a plant that's beneficial and invasive," said Christopher
Buddenhagen, who conducted the study with Charles Chimera and Patti Clifford in
the UH-Manoa Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit.

"It might make money but invade a natural area and have an impact."

For example, he pointed to jatropha curcas, "supposedly a miracle plant ... It's
supposed to be really productive for biodiesel and easy to grow." But the seeds
are toxic and it's considered invasive in other parts of the world, he said.

Buddenhagen, who recently left UH to join SWCA Environmental Consultants, said a
lot of interest in biofuel crops and speculative investment in alternative
energy companies was sparked when gas prices were higher.

Except for noxious weeds, he said Hawaii has a very short list of plants subject
to regulations and he doesn't know if any biofuel crops are on the list. "Apart
from that, the right to plant anything on the land is sacrosanct if you're a
private owner," he said, pointing out this could be a problem if a big land
owner decided to plant a crop likely to be invasive.

Buddenhagen said some high-risk crops might be grown if measures were taken to
keep them from spreading: "There is a lot of literature suggesting we need to be
careful.

"Basically, we have to live with a lot of invasive species we have," Buddenhagen
added, "but if they are widespread over thousands of acres -- a scenario you
would need for significant business -- you're altering the landscape just by
planting in the first place. And if the plants spread, they are potentially
altering the neighboring lands also.

"By identifying the species with the highest risk and pushing for planting
guidelines and precautionary measures prior to widespread planting, we hope to
spare the Hawaiian Islands and similar tropical ecosystems from future economic
and environmental costs of the worst invaders while encouraging and promoting
the use of lower-risk alternative crops."

http://www.starbulletin.com/news/20090425_Biofuel_plant_species_can_turn_aggress\
ive_researchers_warn.html

Jatropha brain storming workshop, March, 2009

http://www.akwl.org/events/jatropha/recommendations_corrected.pdf

Here is list of some recent Hindi articles on Bt Brinjal

Are you ready to become experimental guinea pig for Bt Brinjal?

http://pratikriyaa.blogspot.com/2009/04/110.html

Bt Brinjal vs. Indigenous Brinjal : What Traditional Healers say?

http://pratikriyaa.blogspot.com/2009/04/111.html

Is there no alternative to Bt Brinjal?

http://pratikriyaa.blogspot.com/2009/04/112.html


Pankaj Oudhia

Africa Will Have to Feed EU’s Artificial Biofuels Demand

Hilaire Avril

PARIS, Apr 19 (IPS) - Earlier in the decade, biofuels were hailed as the energy
panacea, the silver bullet to solve oil shortages and abide by environmental
concerns. The European Union recently took the lead in imposing the use of these
liquid or gaseous fuels made from plants.

But the green credentials of biofuels have since been disputed. The total amount
of energy needed to transform biomass into ‘‘green’’ fuels offsets most
of the energy biofuels save when the entire process or life-cycle is considered.

Soils must be fertilised. American corn and soybeans, French sugar beet,
Brazilian sugar cane or peanuts from Benin must undergo heavy, water-intensive
industrial processes to become fuel, and the final product has to be
transported, mostly by truck.

These steps dramatically increase biofuels’ overall carbon footprint, and has
spurted a worrying new surge of deforestation in many developing countries.

But this is not the reason why a coalition of French development activists is
furiously campaigning against biofuels.

The French chapters of Friends of the Earth, Oxfam, Catholic Committee against
Hunger and for Development (CCFD) and others have joined forces under a single
watchword: ‘‘Biofuels won’t feed the planet.’’

Friends of the Earth is an international network of non-profit organisations
campaigning for sustainable societies and Oxfam France is engaged in a global
non-governmental movement working for a just world.

According to the coalition, the figures speak for themselves: 232 kilos of maize
are needed to produce 50 litres of ethanol - roughly enough to fill an average
car tank, or enough to provide the amount of calories a child needs in a year.

But last December, the 27 EU countries agreed on Brussels’ ‘‘Biofuels
Directive’’ and made filling car tanks with biofuels much more profitable
than feeding the hungry.

Part of the EU’s comprehensive ‘‘Climate and Energy Package’’ aimed at
cutting greenhouse gases and cutting energy consumption, the directive requires
all EU members to rely on biofuels for 10 percent of their transport fuel needs
by 2020.

‘‘We have won the battle of ideas, but lost the legal battle,’’ Ambroise
Mazal, who heads CCFD’s side of the campaign against biofuels, told IPS.
‘‘Many European officials have realised the adverse effects of biofuels but
nobody dared amend the ‘Package’ the 27 EU member states had agreed to.

‘‘It would have amounted to opening Pandora’s Box in the course of what
they dubbed ‘the negotiation of the century’, given its complexity,’’ he
explains.

‘‘The problem remains that, as of today, the EU can produce a mere two
percent of the required total. European agriculture could potentially account
for half of the required ten percent, but the rest will have to be imported from
outside the EU,’’ Mazal says.

This artificial bloating of demand is now widely acknowledged as responsible for
the 2008 upsurge in food prices, much more so than ‘‘the speculators’’
that many politicians lambasted last year for diverting food from the dinner
table to the fuel tank. Subsidies and tax incentives have already made it
irresistibly profitable for European agriculture to turn to ethanol or
bio-diesel crops.

Responding to European hunger for biofuel, many African countries have expanded
single-crop farming surfaces. But only large businesses have the resources and
capital to reach the critical size that allows for economies of scale which make
the venture profitable.

Smallholders, which in countries like Benin account for the majority of land
use, and up to 80 percent of employment opportunities, do not benefit from the
biofuel windfall. In addition, land, water and other limited resources are being
diverted from scarce food-producing crops.

Several international institutions, including the International Monetary Fund
and the Food and Agriculture Organisation, have acknowledged in recent years
that the increasing demand for biofuel crops has catastrophic social, economic
and nutritional impacts on developing countries and their already tense food
resources.

Despite this, several African states have drafted policies in favour of biofuel
crops.

In Senegal, which was affected by food riots a year ago, up to 200,000 hectares
(10 percent of the country’s arable lands) might be set aside for jatropha
crops for biofuels.

Second and third generation biofuels are supposed to limit environmental and
social impacts because of either the use of non food-producing crops or biomass
such as algae and fungus.

‘‘That’s a sham,’’ insists Mazal, ‘‘because second generation
fuels made from non-edible crops still take up arable lands and the research is
far from developing sustainable biomass in laboratories.’’

According to him, ‘‘the only remaining lever is on how the EU’s directive
will be transposed into national law. France had initially set targets even more
ambitious than those of the EU, aiming for ten percent of biofuels to be used by
2015 but these have now been revised to seven percent by 2010 in order to save
existing investments.

‘‘Still, that has consequences: in 2007, 65 percent of French rapeseed oil
was used for biofuels, and we’ve had to import rapeseed oil for food
consumption, generally from countries which can’t afford to spare it,’’
Mazal argues.

A growing trend towards the environmental and social certification of biofuels
aims at insuring that they have limited adverse effects on soils and farmers.
But these criteria do not take into account the rising food prices or the
structural bias of biofuels towards large landholders.

‘‘The next step announced by the EU is the commissioning of a study on the
comprehensive impacts of biofuels in developing countries, to be handed in by
2014,’’ states Ambroise Mazal. ‘‘But it doesn’t seem like the European
Commission has any corrective actions in mind, even by then.’’ (END/2009)
http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=46552

Zambia's opposition condemns reported Chinese biofuels project

Lusaka - Zambia's main opposition leader Michael Sata has strongly opposed a
reported request by China to plant 2 million hectares of the jatropha plant in
the southern African country for the production of biofuels. During a discussion
programme on local radio Thursday, Sata said such a move would disadvantage
Zambians, who are scrambling for land to grow food.

Earlier this week, Biofuels Assocation of Zambia (BAZ) head Tyson Chisambo was
quoted as saying that China had made a request for 2 million hectares of land to
produce the non-food crop, whose oil is used to produce biodiesel.

The deal would be the biggest lease of land in the country, which faces food
shortages following severe flooding and drought during last year's growing
season.

The staple food - maize - has shot up in price, in part because of the global
economic slowdown, which has weakened the local currency, the kwacha, rendering
imported machinery more expensive.

Sata, a longtime critic of China's involvement in Zambia, said the project would
only benefit the Chinese labourers he expected would be brought in to work on
the plantation.

Government officials argue that Chinese companies are the best-placed to invest
in Africa in the current economic climate.

Chinese companies already own a number of copper mines in Zambia. China is also
developing economic zones in the north-central Copperbelt and the capital
Lusaka, where Chinese manufacturing, technology and trading companies will
operate tax-free.

The government of Africa's largest copper is looking to biodiesel, among other
things, to solve the country's biting energy shortages.

Mines rely on diesel-powered generators to keep critical equipment running
during frequent power outages.

The reported Chinese project follows a bid by South Korean company Daewoo to
obtain a 99-year lease on 1 million hectares of land on the Indian Ocean island
of Madagascar to produce corn and palm oil.

That project, which had also caused controversy, has been called off by
Madagascar's new leadership.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/262712,zambias-opposition-condemns-repor\
ted-chinese-biofuels-project.html

[Moderator's comment: Read the changed statement of "Dangerous One". After
fooling Indians now they are saying that it is not a miracle crop and requires
specific conditions.

We are saying it from beginning.  Thanks God. It is Internet and all false
claims made by "Dangerous One" earlier are still on-line.

May God save Africa.]

Jatropha for biodiesel 'not a miracle crop'

Jatropha, often hailed as a rich source of biodiesel that flourishes in
semi-arid areas of Africa, is hard to grow and often fails if farmers lack
expertise, an executive of a company developing the crop said.

Vincent Volckaert, the Africa regional director for biofuels technology firm D1
Oils, dismissed the idea jatropha can produce a good harvest in any climatic
conditions as is believed by many who invest in large scale production of the
crop in Africa.

'If you grow jatropha in marginal conditions, you can expect marginal yields.
Jatropha is not a miracle crop: it needs to be cultivated and farmed well to
produce a good harvest,' he told a conference.

Jatropha is a non-food crop and its oil-rich seeds can be used to produce
biodiesel. Supporters argue it can be grown on semi-arid land and so poses less
of a threat to food output than other biofuel feedstocks such as grains and
vegetable oils.

The Biofuels Association of Zambia (BAZ) said that China had asked the southern
African country to plant 2 million hectares of jatropha.

D1 Oils has set up research centres to develop and test new varieties of the
crop, with a next generation of commercial jatropha plants to be launched in
2010.

Volckaert said that in many cases seeds are given out to farmers without any
instruction, plantings are done badly or at the wrong time of the year and then
not managed properly.
He cited a survey of 615 jatropha projects where 90 per cent of the plantations
were in a bad condition.

'No fertiliser will help if the planting was done badly at the beginning,' he
said. Volckaert said that while South Africa is not suited to grow the crop,
there were other promising examples on the continent.

Zimbabwe's National Oil Company said this week the country planned to use
jatropha to produce up to 10 per cent of its fuel needs, or 100 million litres
of biodiesel per year, by 2017.

Mozambique has also drafted a strategy for the production of biofuels from the
drought-resistant crop.

Volckaert said that even with new technologies, it still takes up to 25 years to
mature a jatropha crop, but yields can be doubled over 10 years.-Reuters

http://www.tradearabia.com/news/newsdetails.asp?Sn=&artid=159055

Burmese Jatropha Planting Is Wasting Valuable Land

The advantage of using jatropha curcas to create biodiesel fuel is that the
plant can grow almost anywhere. As a result, land that can be used for growing
productive crops that feed people doesn't need to be squandered on something
like corn for ethanol. In turn that means food prices don't have to rise to meet
industry demand for corn based ethanol.

However, in Burma, the government is forcing its people to grow jatropha at
levels that are causing food problems by wasting land on the crop. What's worse,
the country doesn't have the infrastructure to convert the nut to oil.

http://www.businessinsider.com/burmese-jatropha-planting-is-wasting-valuable-lan\
d-2009-3

Ghana: Women Lose Their Farms to Biofuel Production

Ama Achiaa Amankwah

16 March 2009

     Accra �" Ghanaian small scale farmers, particularly women, are facing
displacement from their farm lands.

In recent times, the northern parts of Ghana are said to be witnessing an influx
of foreign companies engaged in jatropha and sugar-cane plantation for biofuel
production.

Regrettably, some of these companies that are investing in biofuel production
acquire large track of land but only pay the farmers for the portion of the land
they utilize, in spite of an existing contract.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200903161744.html

NGOs raise red flag over biofuel industry in Ghana

Some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are raising concerns about the
biofuel industry in Ghana, warning  its development could endanger food security
in the country.

http://ghanabusinessnews.com/2009/03/13/ngos-raise-red-flag-over-biofuel-industr\
y-in-ghana/

Biofuel Gone Bad: Burma's Atrophying Jatropha


By TIME Staff Friday, Mar. 13, 2009

My friend in Rangoon is a busy man. He manages a couple of companies in Burma's
commercial capital, helps raise his children and regularly makes merit at a
Buddhist temple. He also spends time tending to a plant that he knows is only
grown to die. In Dec. 2005, Burma's economically inept junta �" one of its
leaders once decided to denominate the national currency by multiples of nine
because he liked the number �" decided that the country's future lay in a shrub
called jatropha.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1885050,00.html

Dear Group Members,

    I have recently completed this short film. I am visiting to different Indian
states for more films specially in Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand etc.

Oudhia, P. (2009).Alien Jatropha curcas establishing as invasive species in
biodiversity rich zones of Indian state Chhattisgarh: Some field evidences.
Short Documentary Film, CGBD (Offline Database on Chhattisgarh Biodiversity),
Raipur, India.


Pankaj Oudhia

Lumads: militarization is number one problem
Sunday, 01 March 2009 10:03

Mora narrated the expansion of  plantations of  jatropha aside from
pineapple and banana.

She cited the alleged 500-hectare expansion of jatropha plantation in
Malungon, Sarangani by the Sarangani Biofuels Corporation (SBC) headed
by and organized by Governor Migs Dominguez. Dominguez said he has no
idea what SBC is.

Mora said hundreds of hectares are being planted to jatropha and other
export crops instead of crops for food security.

http://www.mindanews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6002&Itemid=5\
0

42 kids ill

Patthalgaon | Tuesday, Feb 17 2009 IST

Forty-two children were taken ill today after consuming jatropha
(ratanjot) seeds at this district's Madanpur village.

The victims were admitted to the Patthalgaon Health Centre.

http://news.webindia123.com/news/Articles/India/20090217/1179548.html

41 children admitted to hospital after eating Jatropha seeds

Korba (PTI): As many as 41 students of a primary school here fell ill
after consuming Jatropha seeds in Jashpur district in Chhattisgarh,
school authorities said on Wednesday.

According to Shanti Singh, the headmistress of the school in
Madanpur-Injko village, eight children began vomiting yesterday
afternoon and the number went up to 41. All of them were rushed to a
primary health centre (PHC), Singh said.

The children told hospital authorities that they had eaten Jatropha
seeds while on their way to school, Singh added.

Meanwhile, PHC physician J Ming said that all children were out of
danger and recuperating at the hospital.

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/004200902181682.htm

38 children take ill after eating jatropha seeds
February 18th, 2009 - 8:52 pm ICT by IANS - Send to a friend:

Raipur, Feb 18 (IANS) At least 38 children of a government primary
school in Chhattisgarh were rushed to a hospital after eating jatropha
seeds, officials said Wednesday.
The incident took place Tuesday in village Madanpur in Jashpur
district, some 450 km from here, when children while on their way home
from school consumed the seeds.

Health officials at Jashpur district said that 12 of the kids, all
below nine years of age, vomited consistently. But doctors said they
were out of danger Wednesday evening.

Jatropha is a plant that grows up to three metres and produces
inedible fruits. Several states, including Chhattisgarh, have planted
its saplings in millions in a bid to extract bio-fuel from it.

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/38-children-take-ill-after-eat\
ing-jatropha-seeds_100156812.html

Nine Chhattisgarh children in hospital after eating jatropha seeds

February 16th, 2009 - 2:24 pm ICT by IANS  -     Send to a friend:

Raipur, Feb 16 (IANS) At least nine children, including three girls,
were rushed to a hospital when they fell unconscious after eating
jatropha seeds in a Chhattisgarh village, a health official said here
Monday.

The children, all below 13, ate the seeds Sunday evening while playing
in Mandlaur village in Raipur district.

Village headman Chaitram Devangan took the children to a government
hospital in Abhanpur. The children are now reported to be out of
danger but have been kept under observation, the health official added.

Jatropha is a plant that grows up to three metres and produces
inedible fruits. Several states, including Chhattisgarh, have been
planting its saplings in millions in a bid to extract bio-fuel from it.

Some agricultural scientists said eating two seeds would act as a
purgative while four or more could cause death.

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/nine-chhattisgarh-children-in-\
hospital-after-eating-jatropha-seeds_100155674.html

Regional council gives thumbs down to jatropha

Friday 13 Feb 09 9:00am

A regional council charged with protecting 1.25 million hectares of
New Zealand says we shouldn’t grow jatropha..

Jatropha curcas is becoming increasingly popular as source crop for
biofuel, with Air New Zealand selecting it as the source of its
aviation biofuel, but the Northland Regional Council is urging
landowners not to grow jatropha curcas, a biofuel source crop, because
it has the potential to be an invasive weed in the region.

http://www.carbonnews.co.nz/story.asp?storyID=2812

Dear Group Members,

    Daily Navabharat (Raipur edition) from Indian state Chhattisgarh
has published the report on Jatropha failure. After investment of
millions authorities have nothing, neither oil nor Jatropha plant to
show as gain. The opposition has blamed the government for this
cheating. Common people are aware of this scam since long. Here is
link to Hindi news.

http://navabharat.org/12feb09/page10/news.php?img=news2.jpg



Pankaj Oudhia

Land "wasted" for fuel as millions go hungry

Far from being a miracle alternative energy solution, agrofuels are a
dead end with disastrous consequences for developing countries,
Swissaid has claimed.

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss_news/Land_wasted_for_fuel_as_millions_go_hungr\
y.html?siteSect=201&sid=10314895&cKey=1234344121000&ty=st

Mohali to launch awarness campaign

MOHALI: Acting promptly after 24 children were hospitalized after they
consumed poisonous seeds of jatropha, district health authorities have
decided to launch an awareness campaign in schools to prevent any
future occurrence of this kind.

On Saturday, 24 school students in Parol village, near Mullanpur,
landed in civil hospital after they ate the toxic seeds of jatropha
reportedly planted near their school. Timely medical aid ensured that
the kids, who suffered symptoms of food poisoning , were saved, but
the fact that such plants could possibly snuff out young lives has
made the administration act fast.

Mohali district health officer Dr SPS Surila said he would write to
district education officer, advising him to spread awareness in
schools. “As kids have soft intestines, ingestion of wild seeds or
poisonous fruits can lead to diarrhoea and other serious
complications. This can even prove fatal,” he added. He added
youngsters needed to be advised against consuming fruits growing in
the wild and it was the responsibility of school teachers to do so.

Dr Surila said medical officers in respective blocks would also be
asked to spread awareness by educating teachers about the
complications that might result due to consumption of such eatables.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Chandigarh/Mohali_to_launch_awarness_campaign\
/articleshow/4096376.cms

Jatropha feast lands 24 kids in hospital

  MOHALI: Their afternoon march home turned painful for 24 school
students who had to be hospitalized after they consumed poisonous seeds of
jatropha plant, on Saturday afternoon near Mullanpur in the district.
The kids, with ages ranging from three to 13, were returning home when
they passed by a jatropha plant near a brick kiln adjoining their
school in Parol village.

Tempted by the prospect of biting into the fruit that looked like
almond, one of the children plucked some seeds. “He was soon followed
by others who had their fill of the innocuous-looking kernels,” said
district health officer Dr SPS Surila.

Hardly a few moments had passed when the kids began vomiting and
complaining of abdominal pains, severe headache and dizziness. “They
were rushed during afternoon hours with symptoms of food poisoning.
Most of them were vomiting blood and had severe stomach pain,” senior
medical officer at Mohali civil hospital Dr HS Sarang said. He added
immediate medical aid was administered by the parents and doctors who
had rushed to the spot. “The kids were made to drink water and then
were taken to a nearby dispensary,” he said. However, sources said
health officials at the district headquarters were alerted only after
one of the teachers came to know about the students’ condition. Mohali
deputy commissioner PS Mand told TOI the students were out of danger.
“But we will check whether they consumed the fruit during school
hours. Responsibility will be fixed only after proper verification as
it would be improper to comment further without verifying details,” he
added.

Gautam, whose younger sister Shaifali was taken ill after eating
jatropha seeds, said, “She began throwing up immediately after
reaching home and we took her to civil hospital.” Sunil, who brother
and sister are also admitted, said they had abdominal pain
and were feeling faint. Lying on a hospital bed, Arti, 8, said she was
tempted by the sweet-tasting seeds.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Chandigarh/Jatropha_feast_lands_24_kids_in_ho\
spital/articleshow/4093668.cms

Message From USA

Dear Pankaj,

I have just found the details of your work on the web. I am working on
various
molecular biology aspects of Jatropha and it is exciting to see that
you have
some documented evidence of allelopathic interactions of jatropha to
rice. I
tried calling your land line but could not get you and I guess you
were out of
the range area of your mobile as well when I tried that - anyway, the
bottom
line is I am very interested in your work and would like to talk to
you about
it and if possible have a copy of your documents on the allelopathy
affects of
Jatropha.

Hope to hear back from you soon.
Regards

***

=========

My comments: You can get desired information through my research
articles in Ecoport. For effects of Jatropha on Pigeonpea, see this
research paper.

http://ecoport.org/ep?SearchType=reference&ReferenceID=556604


regards

Pankaj Oudhia

Message from Zambia

Dear Dr Oudhia,

We have recently had a case where a small plantation of Jatropha was
completely defoliated within a three weeks by a flea beetle. We are
still trying to identify the insect (Coleoptera) that caused the
damage. Have you heard of other cases where insects defoliate Jatropha?

***

=========

My Comments: Please send the pictures of insect/s. I will try to
identify it. Although media is still publishing that Jatropha is pest
resistance but in India, dozens of different species of insects are
damaging Jatropha. It is also acting as alternate host for many
insects harmful for agricultural crops.

regards

Pankaj Oudhia

Message from USA

Planting 30 million hectares  of Jatropha curcas  sounds like a
disaster waiting to take off!!!

With Australia describing it as invasive and Hawaii PIER ’ s risk
assessment rejecting it; I hope this plant never crosses the ocean to
North America.

With a wide range of tolerances including frost and arid conditions,
could they actually confine it and guarantee no escape?

Unlikely

As someone who works with disturbance areas like roadsides, I truly
hope they reconsider.  This plant has characteristics of invasives
that cost us greatly in parklands, farmlands, wetlands, woodlands, and
more.  I suspect that economics will win; but we will all pay the
price eventually.

Sincerely,

***

------------------

My comments: Thanks for your support. Researchers are aware of Bare
facts about Jatropha but planners are ignoring their warnings. In
India, after all warnings planners planted Jatropha and now the
stories of Jatropha failure, frauds and scams are coming in surface.
Few people enjoyed (and enjoying) from hard earnings of common public.


regards

Pankaj Oudhia

Question from Mumbai, India.

Dear sir,
I read your posts in bio- diesel forum and came to know about your
'say no to jatropha' initiative. It is really shocking to observe that
jatropha plantation is being promoted at the govt. level and given
huge subsidies(waste of public money) ignoring the harmful effects of
jatropha on human health and ecosystem in general.

I hereby request you to send me as much material in text and research
papers regarding toxicity caused by jatropha(plant and products
derived from it) and ecological imbalance it is going to cause due to
large scale plantations, via email as possible and oblige. I can
assure you that this information will be used only for creating
awareness among potential farmers and if possible among policy makers
in the govt.

Regards.

Sincerely yours,

****
========

My comments: Thanks for your message and interest. You can get my
contributions on negative aspects of Jatropha from these sources.

1. Botanical.com

http://botanical.com/site/column_poudhia/poudhia_index.html

2. Ecoport

http://ecoport.org/ep?Plant=1297&entityType=PL****&entityDisplayCategory=eArticl\
es

3. My homepage

http://www.pankajoudhia.com

4. CGBD (Offline Database on Chhattisgarh Biodiversity)

Recent Publications in CGBD

http://cgbiodiversity.blogspot.com/2009/01/research-publications-in-cgbd.html

Films, lectures and Hindi articles are also in CGBD.

These days I am compiling over 20,000 pictures showing negative
aspects of Jatropha. My wish is to present it online in form of slide
show.

For updates keep visiting "Say No To Jatropha" yahoogroup.


regards

Pankaj Oudhia

Dear Group Members,

      Due to tens of online articles on Jatropha I receive hundreds of
mails every week. Readers around the world are eager to know more
about Jatropha. It is not possible to answer all queries in detail.
Due to my work of Traditional knowledge documentation, I get little
time to answer these queries. The reports on Type II Diabetes (Current
size: plus 200 GB), Medicinal Rice (Current size: plus 150 GB) and
Cancer (Started recently) are in full swing.

Therefore, I have decided to give reply to selected queries through
this group.

Pankaj Oudhia