I just posted an article "Farmers Turn to Trees to Make up for Declining Crop Returns". I feel I am missing something in this article. They state they will grow fast-maturing trees which will mature in around 3 years. Later in the article they mention timber which will be exported. Does anyone know of any timber tree which matures in three years?

They do mention Jatropha plant, and when I do a quick lookup Jatropha is supposedly being used for biofuels in India.

My concern is that this European group is getting up the hopes of these farmers that they will start making a lot of money in three years and timber trees just won't grow that fast. Perhaps the group is hoping to use the seeds of this plant for biofuel.

Anyone have any opinions on the article?

Jan - I read the article. I noted that the final sentence read ....

"Besides the timber-producing trees, the main project in the venture, GHHGW plans to introduce other plants such castor oil plant, palm trees and the jatropha plant, the much sought after plant in bio- fuel production."

I read this to mean that the jatropha plant is one of the "other" plants, along with the castor and palms. I found these links that seem to lead to the company providing the promises and financing -
here they are:

http://ec.europa.eu/research/agriculture/pdf/events/3jatropha_en.pdf

http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~demmer/tmp/Cote%20D'Ivoire%20Concept%20Paper.pdf

About trees which grow quickly enough to provide timber - the only plant I can think of that is rapid growing and readily sustainable is bamboo. Though if you look at the thrust of the company - they are most interested in the jatropha as a bio-fuel.

This statement is obviously wrong:

Ms Kim Hartog, a consultant for the Gwassi Hills - Het Groene Woudt (GHHGW), said that the organisation planned to introduce fast-maturing tree varieties that take one to three years before harvest.

The project smells a bit of the typical exploitation. European Company comes to Africa to grow mono-culture on fertile land. Locals are given payments in advance and can not step out anymore because they owe their labor.

Thanks Vee and Carsten.

When you look up jatropha as a biofuel there are articles which state the yield is widely exaggerated:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0CYH/is_15_7/ai_107215410.

Thus I, like Carsten, wonder if this isn't exploitation of people who don't understand what is going on and who hope they will at last start making some money to enable them to feed their families.

I hope I am wrong on this.

There is always as catch somewhere in the small prints......

There are a number of trees that will reach 30 to 50ft in 3 years!

[URL=http://www.energycurrent.com/index.php?system=8&srchText=jatropha&gclid=CN2t-sj6gpMCFQxhMAodsG6iAg]Here[/URL]

The biofuel yield of various crops has been measured, and is usually given in barrels of oil per square mile per year. Corn is a common biofuel crop in the USA, but it yields under 200 barrels (per square mile per year). Rice for example yields almost 1000 barrels, however it is an essential worldwide food crop as are most of the other potential biofuel crops.
It is simply not viable to use good quality arable farmland for growing biofuels, biofuel crops need to be grown on marginal land if we are to benefit from them. This is where Jatropha scores highly. Not only does it have a great yield of well over 2,000 barrels of oil per square mile per year, it also increases the fertility of the land on which it is grown so that it can potentially be used for food crops in subsequent years.

Jatropha is perennial which can grow in arid conditions (even deserts), on any kind of ground, and does not require irrigation or suffer in droughts. Therefore unlike the common biofuel crops of today (corn and sugar), they are very easy to cultivate even on poor land in Africa providing great social and economic benefits for that region.

Jatropha is fast growing and it begins yielding oil in the second year and for the next forty to fifty years. Optimal yields are obtained from the sixth year, and spaced at 2 metre intervals, around 2500 plants can be cultivated per hectare. Jatropha absorbs large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and therefore earns carbon credits.