Jatropha selection and breeding project

Jatropha curcas is widely spread in all tropical countries but domestication of Jatropha began only in the last decade. The common Jatropha produces non-edible seeds because of the presence of a plant secondary compounds called phorbol esters in the seeds and other plant parts. It is a very sturdy plant and can withstand dry conditions once established. Even then many projects in the past failed because of the lower seed production yield of the wild collected seeds. To make a crop such as jatropha attractive for sustainable development, it also should be economically viable even on marginal, drought prone land. High productive and disease resistant varieties can make it more attractive. The edible variety of Jatropha can bring the farmers extra income as the kernel cake, with its high nutritional quality protein, can be used as human food or animal feed ingredient. Building up on its experience in previous projects, LEAS has initiated a cooperation with Jatropower India in developing tools that would accelerate the edible jatropha seed development programme of the latter. The role of LEAS is to look at development of robust analysis methods to differentiate edible and non-edible jatropha varieties.  Of special interest is the development of genetic tools that will help in early differentiation of the edible varieties of Jatropha, already at the nursery stage. Such tools will help accelerate the further development of edible jatropha varieties. Another area of interest is the development of robust analytical techniques to detect the presence of the toxic principle, phorbol esters, in Jatropha seeds.