In Haiti, a group of Irish entrepreneurs agreed to finance the pilot Jatropha Pepinye program in Terrier Rouge, Haiti.

“It has the potential, because it can be grown virtually anywhere, of creating a really positive economic impact in rural Haiti,” said Kathleen Robbins, a Haitian development promoter. Robbins said that jatropha could become a cash crop for Haitiain exports, or supply electricity locally for communities which are not part of the electric grid.

“The nursery expects to begin producing high quality jatropha seedlings in time for the beginning of the rainy season in NE Haiti next spring,” said Robbins. “Also, as part of the mission of Jatropha Pepinye (JP), JP will be providing training and support to a local farmers cooperative, the Petit Planters of Terrier Rouge in conjunction with a local agronomy school along other interested farmers in the area.”

“The jatropha pepinye also has two Haitian Ministry of Agriculture agronomists,” Robbins explained, “Dr Arlan LeCorps and Dr Emmanuel Prophet on its advisory committee, along with Rob Fisher, a landscape architect and executive director of People and Place (www.peopleandplace.org) which has been very active in Terrier Rouge since 2002.”

The three-year maturation process for jatropha seedlings is a barrier for local growers, who will likely produce vegetable crops side by side during the jatropha maturation process.

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