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Sci Tech
Eri silk production
The leaves of the Jatropha curcas plant serve as food for rearing eri silkworms to produce high value silk. In North-East India particularly in Assam, eri silk cocoon production is being carried out for a long time.
Seed cake
Additional benefits from curcas plantations are the production of protein rich seed cake (60 per cent crude protein) that can be used as animal and fish feed and organic manure.
Other products from the plant (leaf, bark and seed extracts) have industrial and pharmaceutical uses.
The tender stem is used as a tooth brush by villagers. Curcas oil find applications in soap industry, varnish, lubricants, and candles preparation.
Barren lands
Curcas is found widely in nature in barren lands throughout India.
It is a hardy plant which grows on poor shallow soils with little water and can be cultivated with success in scanty rainfall areas with little inputs.
It grows fast and can be propagated either by seedlings or by vegetative method (stem cutting). It flowers during summer and bears fruits during winter. The green fruits become yellow when ripe and contain 2 to 3 seeds inside.
The seeds resemble castor seeds. The time taken for seed yield is about 2-5 years from the time of planting depending upon soil and rainfall conditions and there is a long productive period upto 50 years. The average seed yield is about 5 tonnes per hectare.
The plant is not grazed by animals and is highly pest and disease resistant. The crop needs very little water and can be easily grown in arid, semiarid areas, barren lands as well as areas where rainfall is irregular.
It is also widely grown to serve as a live fence around cultivated plots and homesteads and for soil conservation.
It is well suited for quick greening of wasteland for eco-rehabilitation and bio-aesthetic values.
G. M. PATILC. MURTHY & M. S. NAGARAJA
College of Agriculture
University of Agricultural Sciences
UAS, Dharwad
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