Jatropha Project
How it started
After supporting aid projects in several regions of the world for years, PROKON decided to start its own project in 2004. The objective was to combine a sustainable energy supply with development aid.
The German-Tanzanian NGO, Diadem e.V., who promotes education in Mpanda/Tanzania, helped PROKON finding the right place for the project: Mpanda District, Rukwa Region, in the Southwest of Tanzania.
This remote region has not yet benefited much from development aid, and besides tobacco no cash crops are grown and exported outside the region. Therefore, farmers were very interested in this new cash crop called “Mbono” (Jatropha).
In March 2005, the project started with 40 farmers who received seeds from PROKON to start cultivation. Contacts to the local authorities, who were willing to support the project, were established. First meetings with the national energy supplier, TANESCO, took place in 2005. TANESCO runs a thermal power station in Mpanda which can be retrofitted to run on Pure Plant Oil.