Jatropha demonstration project (Siemenpuu Foundation, Finland)
Jatropha as a tool to combat desertification, poverty alleviation & provision of clean energy services to rural women.
This project was designed to promote Jatropha with a strong focus on three key areas in which Jatropha can bring positive change in the rural Malian context: desertification, poverty reduction and energy service provision. The project also had a strong gender aspect because of the nature of Jatropha and the traditions of women's use of the plant for making soap, as well as in management of multi-task energy platforms.
The multi-task energy platform can generally be seen as a technology that improves the living conditions of rural women. The technology overwhelmingly focuses on women’s needs. It is women and young girls who do the vast majority of the hard physical work of pounding millet, maize, karite (shea) nuts which will be replaced to a greater or lesser extent by the platform. This will save women both physical energy and time. The installations are owned by the women’s associations, and income generated by the multi-function platforms is for the use of the association. The platforms use locally produced fuel from a renewable source – jatropha biomass.
Jatropha resource maps elaborated as part of Siemenpuu Project
Creation of Malian Jatropha Network as part of Siemenpuu Project
