Futuras líneas de investigación

Natural capital is defined as natural resources stock that occurs naturally in the environment. It consists of a wide variety of resources, ranging from intangible goods, such as soil and air quality to tangible assets such as trees, land and water (DFID, 1999). In this section of the study, an assessment of the impact of growing Jatropha on the area’s natural capital is examined, the intention being to determine how the growing of Jatropha has influenced the acquisition of natural resource capital (especially land) and soil quality by small-scale rural farmers in Nchiiri and Kagaene villages.

5.6.1

Land holdings and acquisition

From the 15 interviewed farmers in this study who grow Jatropha, in regards to land ownership and acquisition, the majority of the farmers owned land that averaged one acre to three acres. Land in these villages is individually owned and people can acquire it through buying or, leasing or paternal transfer. 13 of the interviewed farmers stated that they were being cautious about expanding their plantation of Jatropha and one commented:

I am very careful when planting these Jatropha trees. I don’t want to put all my land under Jatropha at the expense of other crops that I can easily sell at the market. Jatropha can bring more money compared to maize in this region but the problem is that we don’t have regular buyers of the seeds. They show up at times but sometimes they don’t. Even some farmers still have unsold seeds in their houses right now because no one is interested in buying the seeds anymore. (Farmer Participant No. 9).

Due to the unreliability of the markets, the majority of the interviewed farmers acknowledged that they were not yet ready to increase the area of land they used for the Jatropha crop. This was a result of them realising that most of their seeds were bought at a lower prices than the real price. Many were disappointed with this occurrence and therefore, they were not willing to increase the area of land they used for Jatropha.

83 However, those farmers who doubled as traders had a different story to tell. This is because these farmers made extra profit from the sale of Jatropha. As mentioned previously, many farmers had been deceived into selling their seeds at 20kshs while the buyers sold them on for 70kshs per kilogram. It is noted that no clear information from reliable buyers was sent out to farmers regarding Jatropha prices.

The trade was indeed carried out in secrecy by the few middlemen, who were interested in making more profits from the farmers, who were not well informed on the price of Jatropha seeds. It is clear that these middlemen gained more from the trade at the expense of many farmers, who at the time of doing this study were very disgruntled. One farmer/trader, who was interviewed, confirmed that the Jatropha business was very profitable for him:

There was a period when I didn’t have any money and I had made a down payment on a piece of land and I was unable to pay for the remaining amount of money. I almost lost the piece of land but when the people who were buying Jatropha approached me to buy for them the seeds from the farmers I knew I would get enough money to pay for my piece of land, because the farmers did not know the prices that the buyers were offering. Therefore I decided to lower the prices from 70ksh to 20ksh per kilogram. This gave me a very big return that I managed to pay off my piece of land and even roofed my house with new iron sheets. (Farmer Participant No. 6)

Another farmer had managed to buy sixteen acres of land with profit from the Jatropha trade. His employee who manages his farm confirmed that this farmer had actually acquired the land with the money he got from Jatropha.

My boss has bought up sixteen acres of land from the selling of this seeds. He started planting Jatropha in 2004 and up to now the whole of his farm has only Jatropha trees. I manage the farm for him and also buy Jatropha seeds from other farmers for him that he sells in bulk. (Farmer Participant No. 3)

However, the farm employee could not tell me where his employer takes the seeds and efforts to reach the farm owner were unsuccessful because he does not live in the village.

84 One farmer, who is very optimistic about Jatropha, planted one acre and she has now leased three more acres to plant more Jatropha (see Figure 8). She intends to use part of the plantation as a demonstration plot for educating other farmers who might be interested in growing of Jatropha. Although she has a relatively young crop, she thinks the bio-fuel industry has a bright future in the region and she believes that policies being put together will enable farmers to have better economic terms than the ones that currently exist.

Figure 8 One farmer who has decided to expand her Jatropha crop

Source: Authors field data interviews