Jatropha curcas is one of the best oil seed plants and identified as most suitable oil seed bearing plant due to its various favourable attributes. Jatropha is a deciduous large shrub or small tree that can reach up to 5 meters in height with smooth gray bark. Jatropha plants are native to Central America and well-adapted to the tropics and subtropics of the world. Jatropha is a hard plant and it has short gestation period when compared to other oil seed crops. The other advantage of the plant is it has wider adaptability of different climatic conditions and can be grown in most of the areas. The other reason to go for the cultivation of Jatropha is; it produces high quality oil and oil recovery is very high. Cultivation of Jatropha appears viable due to its demand. Basically, Jatropha crop meant for wastelands and less productive lands, hence this crop will not replace other important food crops grown in rich soils. Jatropha plants produce oil seeds as a source of energy in the form of biodiesel. Jatropha plants belong to the family of “Euphorbiaceae” and genus of “Jatropha L.”. For More Information click here.
