Mucite gave up her lucrative job, city life to grow jatropha
Mar 29, 2010
IT may seem weird that a young woman would quit a well-paying job and the comfort of the city, for rural life. But this is what 27-year-old Magdalene Mucite, known to her friends as Maddy, did.
By George Laghu
IT may seem weird that a young woman would quit a well-paying job and the comfort of the city, for rural life. But this is what 27-year-old Magdalene Mucite, known to her friends as Maddy, did.
She did this to pursue her dream of driving a car that uses biodiesel, extracted from oil seeds grown on her farm. Mucite was a leaf specialist with a leading tobacco company before relocating to Bugereka village, Nabbale sub-county in Mukono district, to commercially farm jatropha.
The plant is commonly called ebiroba (Luganda), ejungula (Iteso), and cuka (Madi). For a long time, it had been looked at as a wild shrub mostly used for perimeter hedges around homes or farmland; or as support to vanilla vines.
However, to Mucite and her colleagues at Energy Agriculture (EA) Uganda, the jatropha tree, fondly called the ‘diesel tree’ is the in-thing for Uganda.
Oil extracted from the jatropha seeds was successfully used to power a car in Kenya’s Shimba hills two years ago. Mucite wants to achieve a similar feat in Uganda.
The good news is that Mucite is not alone in her struggle. Makerere University’s faculty of technology, through its Centre for Research in Energy and Energy Conservation (CREEC), is doing research on the potential of the jatropha oil produced by Mucite.
Why biodisel?
According to Mucite and CREEC researchers, biodiesel is cleaner, eco-friendly and economical.
The burning characteristics of jatropha seeds have been common knowledge to Ugandans since time immemorial. During the shortage of paraffin in the 1970s and the early 1980s, people in eastern and northern Uganda staked jatropha seeds on a wire and lit it. It burns like a candle.
CREEC is leading the research for the purification of jatropha oil to use it to fuel cars. Karsten Berchtel, the project management officer of Renewable Energy Research, says the potential of the ‘diesel tree’ in Uganda is great.
“The university has already acquired a light motorised portable machine at sh5m from China to extract oil from the jatropha and other oil seeds. The machine, which will be launched in April this year, uses both diesel and jatropha seeds,†says Karsten.
Benjamin Mpeirwe, a student at the faculty of technology in Makerere specialising in renewable energy systems, says the extraction of biodiesel from jatropha seeds using appropriate technology is the way forward.
“The challenges of global warming and poisonous emissions from fossil fuels remain formidable, making options to eco-friendly fuels such as biodiesel the most viable,†he adds.
Mucite’s journey
Her story started in December 2006 when she had her annual leave in Nairobi.
“It was at a meeting with my friends in Nairobi that I learnt about jatropha and came back with some seeds,†says Mucite.
When she returned to Uganda, she resigned her job to start growing jatropha. Mucite used all her savings, topped up with a sh11m loan, to buy land at Bugereka village.
The hard path
“Money was not easy to come by since I had no job. But the worst was learning that jatropha trees are susceptible to beetles and termites. There is also no support from the Government to jatropha farmers,†Mucite laments.
“The problem in Moyo is that since jatropha has been growing wildly in the district, people think we are failures from Kampala trying to reap from anything.â€
“Luckily, I had the moral support of my family, especially my father and Erick Jarl Trandsen, the managing director of Shimba Hill-based energy Africa,†she sighs with relief.
Four years ago, Trandsen visited Mucite’s jatropha farm in Mukono and was impressed that Mucite was using the high yielding Ugandan variety of jatropha.
“The Kenyan variety does not yield as much seeds and oil as the Ugandan type while the Tanzanian variety is so leafy,†says Mucite, who is quick to add that her trials are still at the experimental stages.
She says they do not encourage out-growers at the moment because many farmers have lost interest in investing in new crops after their disappointment with moringa and vanilla.
The benefits
Mucite buys a kilo of jatropha seeds at sh3,000. A litre of crude jatropha oil costs sh4,000. Herbal soap made from jatropha oil goes for sh1,000, while the improved tadooba (local lamp) that uses jatropha oil costs sh1,000.
She also sells each jatropha seed at sh200 to farmers and a farmers’ handbook at sh5,000. “I hope to buy a processing machine soon. Currently, I process my crude oil at the Africa Power Initiative plant in Bugolobi,†says Mucite.
Jatropha success
Mucite says jatropha has been successful in Masindi and Moyo districts. “We have three acres of jatropha in Moyo with a full time field assistant,†she adds.
Energy Agriculture has held radio talk-shows in Moyo to further the agenda of jatropha growing. As a result, the district council gave them an office to use free of charge for one year.
In April, EA will take a jatropha specialist from Norway to all the districts of West Nile in a bid to attract foreign investment.
Recognition
Last year, Mucite won first position at the Uganda National Farmers’ Association show in Jinja, earning her recognition from President Yoweri Museveni.
IT may seem weird that a young woman would quit a well-paying job and the comfort of the city, for rural life. But this is what 27-year-old Magdalene Mucite, known to her friends as Maddy, did.
She did this to pursue her dream of driving a car that uses biodiesel, extracted from oil seeds grown on her farm. Mucite was a leaf specialist with a leading tobacco company before relocating to Bugereka village, Nabbale sub-county in Mukono district, to commercially farm jatropha.
The plant is commonly called ebiroba (Luganda), ejungula (Iteso), and cuka (Madi). For a long time, it had been looked at as a wild shrub mostly used for perimeter hedges around homes or farmland; or as support to vanilla vines.
However, to Mucite and her colleagues at Energy Agriculture (EA) Uganda, the jatropha tree, fondly called the ‘diesel tree’ is the in-thing for Uganda.
Oil extracted from the jatropha seeds was successfully used to power a car in Kenya’s Shimba hills two years ago. Mucite wants to achieve a similar feat in Uganda.
The good news is that Mucite is not alone in her struggle. Makerere University’s faculty of technology, through its Centre for Research in Energy and Energy Conservation (CREEC), is doing research on the potential of the jatropha oil produced by Mucite.
Why biodisel?
According to Mucite and CREEC researchers, biodiesel is cleaner, eco-friendly and economical.
The burning characteristics of jatropha seeds have been common knowledge to Ugandans since time immemorial. During the shortage of paraffin in the 1970s and the early 1980s, people in eastern and northern Uganda staked jatropha seeds on a wire and lit it. It burns like a candle.
CREEC is leading the research for the purification of jatropha oil to use it to fuel cars. Karsten Berchtel, the project management officer of Renewable Energy Research, says the potential of the ‘diesel tree’ in Uganda is great.
“The university has already acquired a light motorised portable machine at sh5m from China to extract oil from the jatropha and other oil seeds. The machine, which will be launched in April this year, uses both diesel and jatropha seeds,†says Karsten.
Benjamin Mpeirwe, a student at the faculty of technology in Makerere specialising in renewable energy systems, says the extraction of biodiesel from jatropha seeds using appropriate technology is the way forward.
“The challenges of global warming and poisonous emissions from fossil fuels remain formidable, making options to eco-friendly fuels such as biodiesel the most viable,†he adds.
Mucite’s journey
Her story started in December 2006 when she had her annual leave in Nairobi.
“It was at a meeting with my friends in Nairobi that I learnt about jatropha and came back with some seeds,†says Mucite.
When she returned to Uganda, she resigned her job to start growing jatropha. Mucite used all her savings, topped up with a sh11m loan, to buy land at Bugereka village.
The hard path
“Money was not easy to come by since I had no job. But the worst was learning that jatropha trees are susceptible to beetles and termites. There is also no support from the Government to jatropha farmers,†Mucite laments.
“The problem in Moyo is that since jatropha has been growing wildly in the district, people think we are failures from Kampala trying to reap from anything.â€
“Luckily, I had the moral support of my family, especially my father and Erick Jarl Trandsen, the managing director of Shimba Hill-based energy Africa,†she sighs with relief.
Four years ago, Trandsen visited Mucite’s jatropha farm in Mukono and was impressed that Mucite was using the high yielding Ugandan variety of jatropha.
“The Kenyan variety does not yield as much seeds and oil as the Ugandan type while the Tanzanian variety is so leafy,†says Mucite, who is quick to add that her trials are still at the experimental stages.
She says they do not encourage out-growers at the moment because many farmers have lost interest in investing in new crops after their disappointment with moringa and vanilla.
The benefits
Mucite buys a kilo of jatropha seeds at sh3,000. A litre of crude jatropha oil costs sh4,000. Herbal soap made from jatropha oil goes for sh1,000, while the improved tadooba (local lamp) that uses jatropha oil costs sh1,000.
She also sells each jatropha seed at sh200 to farmers and a farmers’ handbook at sh5,000. “I hope to buy a processing machine soon. Currently, I process my crude oil at the Africa Power Initiative plant in Bugolobi,†says Mucite.
Jatropha success
Mucite says jatropha has been successful in Masindi and Moyo districts. “We have three acres of jatropha in Moyo with a full time field assistant,†she adds.
Energy Agriculture has held radio talk-shows in Moyo to further the agenda of jatropha growing. As a result, the district council gave them an office to use free of charge for one year.
In April, EA will take a jatropha specialist from Norway to all the districts of West Nile in a bid to attract foreign investment.
Recognition
Last year, Mucite won first position at the Uganda National Farmers’ Association show in Jinja, earning her recognition from President Yoweri Museveni.