Jatropha Plantation increases food production
Biofuel Africa, a Ghanaian corporation wholly owned by the Norway-based Solar Harvest, claims to have increased the acreage of land available for food production in Northern Ghana by 880%.
In 2008, 55 acres of the company’s land was planted with food crops grown by 25 local farmers. Tests showed that repeated growing of food crops had depleted this soil of much of its nutritional content.
Biofuel Africa transferred the depleted soil over to jatropha production, offering the farmers instead the chance to relocate to land leased by Biofuel Africa that had not been previously farmed.
BioFuel Africa then cleared and ploughed the land for the farmers, and the farmers themselves planted local staples such as cassava, yam, corn, rice, beans and peanuts. Within a year, this had been increased from 55 acres to 540, all of which was leased cleared and ploughed by Biofuel Africa.
‘We follow what we call our Food First Principle,’ said Steinar Kolnes, CEO and director of BioFuel Africa. ‘That means that food production is always given first priority. When we cultivate crops for jatropha, we simultaneously invest in food production to assure that local farmers and local communities are positively affected by our presence in the area.’
In 2008, 55 acres of the company’s land was planted with food crops grown by 25 local farmers. Tests showed that repeated growing of food crops had depleted this soil of much of its nutritional content.
Biofuel Africa transferred the depleted soil over to jatropha production, offering the farmers instead the chance to relocate to land leased by Biofuel Africa that had not been previously farmed.
BioFuel Africa then cleared and ploughed the land for the farmers, and the farmers themselves planted local staples such as cassava, yam, corn, rice, beans and peanuts. Within a year, this had been increased from 55 acres to 540, all of which was leased cleared and ploughed by Biofuel Africa.
‘We follow what we call our Food First Principle,’ said Steinar Kolnes, CEO and director of BioFuel Africa. ‘That means that food production is always given first priority. When we cultivate crops for jatropha, we simultaneously invest in food production to assure that local farmers and local communities are positively affected by our presence in the area.’
Loading ...
