Conference article

This paper will present the interactive research of expert team on Jatropha curcas plantation management to obtain high productivity in terms of dry seed weight per cultivation area. Set of experiments were designed and performed on randomize central block design and triplicate data were collected. The spacing was the important factor along with the cutting management program for long time cultivation. Therefore; the 3 different spacing (2x2; 2x3 and 3x3) were tested. The results show that 2x3 and 3x3 m spacing gave high yield of 129.2 and 127.1 kg/rai for the first cultivation year. In addition; types of insect and pest were surveyed in the Jatropha plantations and the ranking of the most found insect and pest was proposed. Mealy bug; Aphids and coccus were the most found insects in the Jatropha plantation. In the mean time; leaf spot; fungus infection; was the most sever in many areas in Thailand. Then the harmless chemical and biological treatments were tested to control those insects. The harmless chemical such as sodium lauryl sulphate and consumable products (tooth paste; shampoo etc) were used. In case of biological control; the natural predator; green lace wing; of the first top three insects was introduced and tested in the field. On the other hand; the number of insect pollinator was recorded at the Jatropha plantation responding to the Sun direction and time of the day. Interestingly; pollen germination also depends on the Sun direction. On the other hand; Box-Behnken design was used to optimize the transesterification of Jatropha oil to obtain the high fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) percentage. The results show that at the mole ratio of methanol and oil of 9:1; catalyze of 1.5%; reaction time of 72 min and temperature of 60 ^oC was the optimum condition and 99.0% of FAME was obtained. For the seed cake utilization; different rates of the seed cake (1;600; 800; 400 kg/rai) were applied to the cultivation of Chinese kale; tomato and potato. It was understandable that the mix of chemical fertilizer and Jatropha seed cake (1;600 kg/rai) gave the highest plant performance and no phorbol ester residue left in the cultivation soil and harvested vegetable.

Jatropha curcas; Plantation management; Jatropha insect and pest; Jatropha polinator