Project Updates

Project Teak

When Adarsha and I visited our project site in India in the summer of 2009, the participating farmers expressed their concerns about the project's viability. The global recession played a major role in their skepticism. In order to give them assurance that we were in this project for the long haul, we came up with a bonus package known as "Project Teak", in which we distributed teak, silver oak, and pongamea saplings. Teak and Silver Oak trees, which are tropical hardwood, are famous and valued for their weather resistance. They are used to make outdoor furniture, doors, and window frames. Project Teak is providing a future source of revenue for farmers compared to the more immediate and short term economic benefits of Jatropha curcas. Already, we have distributed 813 teak, 1279 silver oak, and 225 pongamea saplings to 22 farmer leaders of Phase I and II & three rural schools in Hunsur Area!
The Plan of Action for 2010-11:

As a part of Global Call to Youth, we are expanding Project Teak to include thirty rural schools near our project site. There are 378 rural schools in all in the Hunsur area which needs help in terms of environmental education and creation of school gardening. We can plant up to 40,000 forestry saplings in these schools. However, at this point we don't have sufficient funds to launch this program in all the schools. So, we plan to choose 30 schools in the year 2010-11 based on our present financial situation. There is one big problem we need to solve. During summer, as the schools are closed, there will be no one to take care of the saplings. Villagers leave cattle to graze in the school fields and small children play in the fields, significantly increasing the mortality rate of the saplings. Consequently, we need to figure out a way to solve this problem. In spite of this, we plan on launching the tree planting project in the selected schools in the summer of 2010. Through Parivarthana staff, we will provide the environmental education. We will visit the schools and educate the youth about the dangers of climate change. We plan on distributing 100 forestry saplings per school which will amount to 3000 saplings in all.

In addition, we will choose 200 more farmers to participate in Project teak as a part of Global Call to Youth for the year 2010-11. We will distribute 100 forestry saplings per farmer which will add up to 20,000 saplings overall. With the help of Parivarthana staff, we will give the farmers environmental education and training.

The detailed program cost will be updated in the budget section of our website. We have already met the financial obligation to carry out this plan for the year 2010-2011.

Please contact Apoorva at apoorva@projectjatropha.com if you are interested in sponsoring Teak, Silver Oak, and Pongamea saplings to farmers or rural high schools.