
To ensure sustainability for future generations, JOil has set a noble vision of becoming a global bioenergy company using plant sciences as its core strength with a clear focus on Jatropha curcas.
With an immense potential to be grown on unused land (including marginal land), Jatropha is considered as a futuristic sustainable option, along with other non-edible feedstock options for producing biodiesel. Apart from automotive fuel, Jatropha-based biofuel is also seen to become a source of energy in the aviation and power sectors.
Jatropha is not a domesticated plant with highly variable productivity among collections from different parts of the world and even among sibling plants in a single population. This variability in seed derived plants has led to uncertainties in the viability of Jatropha as a crop.
To overcome the problem of non-uniformity of seed derived plants, we at JOil decided to adopt the approach of propagating elite Jatropha hybrid plants through tissue culture technology. A highly efficient proprietary in vitro propagation technology has been developed for large scale commercial production.
With high propagation ratio and wide applicability to various Jatropha varieties, JOil’s propriety technology has the potential to obtain hundreds of thousands of clones from one selected tree within a year. Such a strategy significantly shortens the time required for large scale propagation for commercial scale plantations. Our field trials so far confirm that clones duplicate the good performance of mother plants and are more uniform in performance.