The Cinderella Plant; Africans used to think jatropha was a worthless bush. Now it may be an important new source of energy.

Byline: Karen Palmer

Jatropha Circas is the Cinderella of the plant world. Throw a seed in the poorest soil on the planet, and up comes a bush that will likely last 50 years. During a drought, jatropha bushes simply drop their leaves and keep pumping out seedpods. Livestock won't eat it, pests don't appear to like it. For longer than anybody can remember, Africans used it as living fences meant to keep back the encroaching Sahara and Kalahari deserts. It wasn't good for much else.

Now this humble bush appears poised to become a global star. In recent years studies have shown that jatropha oil burns with one fifth the carbon emission of fossil fuels, making Africa's hardscrabble ground a potentially fertile source of energy. Scientists estimate that if even a quarter of the continent's arable land were plowed into jatropha plantations, output would surpass 20 million barrels a day. That would be good news for Europe, where the thirst for biodiesel is growing. The European Union has decreed that consumers will use 5.75 percent biodiesel in motor vehicles by 2010 and 20 percent by 2020, which means that Europe has to come up with a 10.5 billion-liter supply of biodiesel in the next four years. With maize prices going through the roof, scientists are experimenting with alternative nonfood crops in the lab; so far, jatropha is the only one ready for commercialization.

The result has been a land rush of sorts in Africa. Experimental jatropha plantations are now popping up in virtually every corner of the continent, from Kenya, to Ghana, to South Africa. It's difficult to say how much African land is currently being cultivated with jatropha, but there are fields in Benin, Mali, Senegal and Nigeria, and at least 990,000 hectares in Burkina Faso.

Norwegian, Indian and British companies are racing to buy up or lease enormous swaths of African land for jatropha plantations. U.K.-based D1 Oils has bought 20,000 hectares in Malawi and 15,000 hectares in Zambia. India's IKF Tech has requested government leases for a total of 150,000 hectares of land in ...