purposes. It is used to shield our farms from goats and other grazing animals from going into the farms and destroy it. This is because it is poisonous in nature.But now, it is being used by human in a microscopic manner to shield themselves. The plant takes about five years to achieve its full production as it produces the first harvest of yield of about 1.2 kilograms of seed per plant.
The seed contains 37 to 40 percent oil of its total weight. This oil content can be extracted by a simple process liken to vegetable seed extract through crushing of the seed and extracting the oil. But in the case of the Jatropha, to convert the crude oil into bio diesel it must be made to under go Transesterification process by washing it with alcohols. Glycerol that is a bye product is produced along with compost manure. It is pertinent to note that glycerol has more than 5000 uses. Basically, it is used in the soap industry.
A number of small scale industries can be formed from the bye product of the bio-diesel plant.
Beside the bio diesel, there is also the seed cake after which it must have been detoxified and can therefore be used as animal feed. The bio diesel is safe to use as it does not cause any harm to human.
The plant also has some social and environmental benefits and offers a lot of employment to many people.
Using bio diesel does not require reconfiguration of the existing diesel engines of the various plants or cars that would use it, as it can either be used to blend the conventional diesel or used 100 percent directly in diesel engines. It contains greater lubricating properties for engines as they function well without any problem.
If a farmer decides to have a Jatropha plantation on a land space of about 6, 000 hectares, the production output would be more than $11,340,000 in value from 8.1 million litres of diesel and 400t of glycerol. The economy of scale in a bio-diesel project and is very competitive, as a small scale producer would survive alongside the large scale producer competitively.Â
Procuring the machinery for the production of the bio diesel is perhaps one of the greatest questions that could be agitating the minds of possible investors, but Shavini Rani who made a presentation to the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) with a view to partnering SHASHWAT JATROPHA BIODIESEL (a renewable energy company), on the benefits of using Jatropha Curcas as feedstock of choice for bio diesel in Nigeria, said there was no need for any body to entertain any fear as there are many companies in Europe and America that can supply the machineries. “Presently USA , Mexico , Germany and India are all presently supplying the machines for the production of bio-dieselâ€.
 The machinery that would be required to meet the production target however needs some basic requirement and one of these is that it must be sited within the locality where the crop is grown. On a large commercial scale, it is advisable for the machine to have the capacity to produce 2.5 tons per hour for oil extraction.. All the crude jatropha oil that comes from the oil mills would be processed by one refinery plant.Â
The proposed capacity of the refinery would be 10 tons per hour. They will under go gratification process in the refinery as it would not be economical to have them in all the oil mills.
Where will project lead to after five years The wholesome picture of what would happen in the next five years?
 The output of about one million hectare Jatropha would involved about two billions crops. The economic benefit of this would be a direct employment of about one million people . The quantity of bio diesel that would be produced would be about five million metric tons and this could translate to about a total of $439 billion in a year in addition to achieving the target of an energy self sufficient Nigeria
The programme comes with a lot of opportunities for the development of rural Nigeria. The opportunities involved the cultivation of edible oil. The jatropha crop does not require any fertile soil or water rather it grows on barren soil and generate nitrogen and phosphate which are suitable for the cultivation of other crops as well. The unfertile soil would be getting nutrient to grow other crops such as edible oil and other crops which could be sold to earn revenue.
 There could be edible oil plantations in the same field through the process of inter cropping. Through the edible vegetation plantation we can enter into the industry of food processing, sourcea, jelly and germs . It also interesting that honey collecting farm could established through this process. Since before the seed comes in the jatropha farm the flowers are always attractive to honey bees. All these could enhance rural empowerment and enhancement.





