Experts at an oils and fats conference in Guangzhou yesterday issued words of caution to China and other energy-thirsty developing countries about the viability of the woody oilseed plant jatropha as an ingredient in biofuels, according to a Reuters report.

As part of China's Green Poverty Reduction Program, jatropha farms in northeast Yunnan, southeast Sichuan and northwest Guizhou will be expanded from 27,000 hectares of trees to 270,000 hectares for the purpose of using jatropha oil in biofuel. This area shared by the three provinces is an arid mountainous region suitable to the plant, which is African in origin.

Jatropha was criticized at the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil for producing toxic nuts and leaves which require special treatment by farmers. Special crushing facilities are also necessary to manage the toxic vapor produced in processing the plant's nuts. The plant's labor-intensive production, unstable harvesting schedule and varying yields also raised concern.

One unnamed participant in the conference said it was hoping to secure investment by year-end to build one of the planet's first large-scale jatropha-focused biodiesel plants in Yunnan.

Yunnan will be one of five administrative regions in China to participate in the project "Green Poverty Reduction in China" with the goal of environmentally-friendly economic and energy development, which was launched at the end of November.

The US$8.5 billion project is an initiative between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), China's Ministry of Science and Technology and a branch of the Ministry of Commerce. Aimed at alleviating western China's poverty with green business and energy generation, the initiative will provide small-scale wind turbines to Inner Mongolian herdsmen and fund production of Chinese medicinal herb Jarrah Dayun in Xinjiang.

The initiative will also target the arid mountainous regions of northeast Yunnan, southeast Sichuan and northwest Guizhou, where it will fund planting of Jatropha curcas L., a tree that thrives in arid regions, adds nutrients to soil and produces large amounts of an oil that can be used in making bio-diesel.

The goal of the project in the region is to expand the existing 27,000 hectares of jatropha trees to more than 270,000 hectares within the next five years, which is expected to add US$65-$90 of income per year to the areas impoverished farmers. The initiative will also explore local strategies for optimizing jatropha's energy potential.