Florida Farmers Try "New" Oilseed Crop

Florida Farmers Try "New" Oilseed Crop 34-5-8 Florida farmers could soon be harvesting biodiesel oil from jatropha nuts. Farmers in the state are planting test plots of jatropha shrubs with the help of University of Florida researchers. The shrub grows up to 20 ft. tall, begins producing nuts at 18 months, is mature at three years, and has a life expectancy of 40 years. Martha Avila, soil sustainability coordinator, University of Florida, says the oilseed crop is being tried on marginal acres and fields that have been abandoned. Jatropha will continue producing for decades and, because it's not a food crop, it requires minimal irrigation. Avila works closely with Lee County extension and Florida University researcher Roy Beckford. "We are working with different growers here, as well as across the state, in parts of Latin America and the Caribbean," she says. "Our plots are more than five years old, and there are now farms growing from five acres to 200 acres." One thing being evaluated is how far north jatropha can be grown. Avila reports one grower in Georgia who started trees from seeds. In only 6 months they had reached heights of 3 ft. The big question is cold tolerance. This past winter Lee County temperatures hit and stayed below 22 degrees Fahrenheit for 8 hours. Plants three years old and younger lost foliage and had branch dieback. Of 176 plants, 40 percent are showing signs of recovery with new growth. Others are growing back from ground level. At the same time, older plants seemed able to survive with no setback. Avila cites an 80 year old tree near Fort Myers that was unaffected by similar temperatures. Beckford has recorded yields as high as 40 lbs. of nuts per shrub. According to him, oil yields from a jatropha crop could reach 1,200 gal. per acre with a value of more than $4,400, compared to soybeans, which yield approximately 48 gal. per acre. He considers it an ideal oil crop especially for southern Florida. Avila and Beckford aren't the only ones looking at jatropha. Researchers from Europe and Israel are evaluating hundreds of jatropha varieties. Plans are in place for hundreds of thousands of acres of jatropha to be planted in Africa. Avila says huge acreages have already been planted in South America. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Martha C. Avila, Sustainability Program Coordinator, University of Fla. IFAS, Lee County Extension, 3406 Palm Beach Boulevard, Ft. Myers, Fla. 33916 (ph 239 533-7506; avilamc@leegov.com; www.lee.ifas.ufl.edu).

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