Mansor bin Puteh is a Research Officer at the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) since 1977. He is an agronomist by training, obtained his B. Agric. Sc (Hons) from Universiti Pertanian Malaysia (currently known as Universiti Putra Malaysia) and Masters Degree from University of the Philippines at Los Banos. At present, he also serves as the Deputy Director in Rice and Industrial Crops Research Center of MARDI, where R&D program on jatropha cultivation is being carried-out.

As a researcher, he has had experiences working with a variety of economically important crops including cocoa, coconut, rice, essential oils and herbs. He was the coordinator for R&D on herbs at the Research Center till recently when his work is mainly focus on new/potential crops particularly plants for bio-fuel, fiber, sweetener and colorants. His main research interest is on upstream production system encompassing crop propagation, cultural practices and fertilizer management. He is also involved in technology promotion and transfer works to the private sector and farmers.

He actively contributes his knowledge and experience through various working group in the organizational and national level. He has also led and involved in a number of consultation works especially those related to herbs and new crops.

JatrophaWorld 2008 Jakarta Speaker
Day 1 – Wednesday, 23rd January, 2008
09:40 ECONOMIC AND TECHNICAL PERSPECTIVES AS A SMALLHOLDER CROP

• Socio-economic environment of the smallholders (Malaysian case study).
• Opportunity costs of cultivating jatropha instead of other established crops especially oil palm and rubber.
• Technical and marketing constraints at the smallholders level (planting materials, agronomic practices, pest and disease management and post-harvest handling).

Abstract of Presentation
Smallholders’ sector plays a very important role in the Malaysian agriculture, utilizing about one-half of the cultivated land and growing various industrial and food crops. The introduction of jatropha (Jatropha curcas) in recent years, offers an additional option of crops for commercial planting by this sector. However, there are pre-requisites for success for any introduced crop under the Malaysian condition, such as income generation capability, extent of labor and land requirements, availability of marketing channels and compatibility with the socio-cultural system of the farmers. At present, the most established crops of choice, in both good and marginal agro-ecological areas, are oil palm and rubber. With the current favorable commodity price and the holding size of about 2-4 ha, Malaysian smallholders enjoy a very comfortable income from these crops; their net return is in the region of RM6,700 – 6,800/ha/year3 and the return to the family labor is about RM7,700 – 8,800/ha/year. Based on dry seed yield of 6 t/ha/year and the price of RM500/t of dry seed, cultivation of jatropha does not give any net income to the farmers, only the return to the family labor. To be competitive to oil palm and rubber, the yield level (or price) of jatropha should be 3 times higher than the current estimate. As to the labor intensiveness, jatropha requires about 105 man-days during the full maturity stage, as compared to 40 man-days for oil palm and 80 man-days for rubber. Since most of the Malaysian smallholders are 45-76 years old and the daily wage of farm workers is relatively expensive (about RM25/man-day) and labor is not readily available, this higher requirement for labor makes jatropha less attractive against other crops. There are ominous technology gaps along the value chain in jatropha cultivation, particularly pertaining to high-yielding variety/clone, production agronomy, mechanization and pests and disease management. Improving the yield to ensure that smallholders have a reasonable income and to meet feedstock requirements for the biofuel industry is a big challenge and will be crucial as a ‘Pull’ factor towards smallholders venture into jatropha cultivation.

The above mentioned expert shared his insights at JatrophaWorld Jakarta 2008, which was held on 23-24 January 2008 & welcomed over 350 Jatropha experts, industry players and entrepreneurs from 40 countries, making it the single largest Jatropha business forum in the world. JatrophaWorld Miami 2008, the second conference in the series will be held on 9-11 June 2008 in beautiful downtown Miami. Visit www.futureenergyevents.com/jatropha/attend to REGISTER TODAY for this exciting second conference in the series.