1 Short Status Presentation, August 2018
Jatropower AG - International spread Slide 2 Switzerland: Registerd office Germany: Working office, near University of Hohenheim Jatropower Kenya Limited: Jatropower India: 2 research Experimental station on own farms on own land, 9 Seed land. Production Orchards. Operations: Agronomic Operations: Research and research, Cultivar testing Development, production of station commercial cultivar seeds, store house, quality control laboratory Starting year: 2008, key personnel in jatropha sector since >12 years Financing: private equity of the promoters Research collaboration: universities and public research institutes
History and evolution Slide 3 Jatropower AG was founded in 2008 in Baar, Switzerland, Jatropower India founded immediately afterwards in Chennai, India Objective was to collect jatropha seeds from farmers in co-operation with an Indian NGO, press oil and export to Europe for biodiesel production and sales Jatropha plantations found not to be profitable for farmers – lack of good seeds and lack of knowledge on agronomy of the crop Start of the breeding programme in India by establishment of a genetic garden with genotypes from all jatropha “hot spots” of the world Broad basing of genotype and product testing to Kenya (with own fully owned subsidiary) Strengthening of, genotype base, agronomic data, knowledge packages and product portfolio through takeover of assets of Quinvita BV, Belgium in 2014 (generated through capital spend of over 8 million Euros) The only Jatropha breeding company to have commercially sold improved jatropha seeds internationally and received repeat orders. The first company to market improved non-toxic jatropha seeds.
Key business foci Slide 4 Agronomic observation under different conditions - since 2009, ongoing Genetic analysis – ongoing, focus on identifying genetic distance, early hybrid confirmation, linking markers to key characters (company has SNP markers for pistillate character and non-toxicity marker, other marker-trait linkages being investigated) Selection and breeding for first generation inbreds/synthetics – current portfolio has 7 cultivars and hybrids for sale, including the first elite non-toxic jatropha cultivar and 2 F1 Hybrid seeds Seed production for sale – company operates 5 seed production orchards currently, including one where the first commercially marketed hybrid jatropha seeds is being produced Hybridisation – JP hybridisation programme started in 2010 and several F1s with high hybrid vigour has been identified Scalable production model for hybrids – JP currently has one scalable hybrid production system implemented Evaluation of cultivar performance through co-operation with clients – agreement with a client to use their farm as a demo – farm and for continuous evaluation of products in pipeline Client acquisition – seed purchase and/or technical consultancy agreements with 3 clients, discussions on with others
JP Jatropha development recieved considerable momentum from the Slide 5 acquisition of Quinvita jatropha assets List of acquired assets: Site selection tool (google map based) Complete agronomic knowledge base, manuals and presentations Complete breeding knowhow and techniques Complete „Agrobase“ database of containing all breeding and agronomic data so far 6 seed production orchards in India with selected QV genotypes Selected elite QV genotypes and hybrids Complete QV germplasm base including pistillate plants Selected laboratory equipment (NMR for non-destructive dry matter and oil analysis, gas chromatograph for fatty acid analysis, bulk seed moisture meter, shelling machine for fruits)
Non-toxic jatropha Slide 6 Jatropower has pioneered the development of high- yielding non-toxic jatropha seeds Jatropower portfolio of seeds currently includes the first non-toxic jatropha cultivar to be marketed First sales of non-toxic jatropha in 2015 Establishing new production facilities for non-toxic cultivars and derivative plants with higher yield Q2, 2013
Why non-toxic jatropha Slide 7 Jatropha kernel meal (not seed cake) has high quality as a protein rich animal feed ingredient Conventional toxic jatropha meal has to be detoxified as they contain toxic phorbol ester (all other antinutrients present can be neutralised by heat treatment similar to soybean meal) Detoxification is possible by solvent extraction (first shown at the University of Hohenheim during the „Daimler project“ in 2005 -6) At least 4 detoxification patents exist, some since 2010 - but no commercially viable process yet because of the difficulty in integrating it with oil-extraction process and the high additional cost Basics of the process is simple and outlined in published material (e.g. Martınez - Herrera et al, Food Chemistry 96 (2006) 80 – 89) The non-toxic jatropha exist in nature Observations showed comparatively lesser yield compared to conventional jatropha This however, changes when the selected cultivars and derivatives are used No higher pest pressure compared to those observed on the toxic accessions Q2, 2013
Cultivar JPNT-1 (non-toxic, previously JP2) Slide 8
Further development of non-toxic Slide 9 jatropha cultivars Jatropower non-toxic cultivars do show a certain phenotypic and variation The genetic distance measurements where repeated in 2018 with state-of-the-art techniques A new selection of parents have been effected based on these and new NTxNT crosses have been initiated A further interesting source of NT variability comes from NT plants derived from apomixis The present Jatropower pipeline has several promising cultivars/derivatives that will be offered shortly in the market
JP research farms Slide 10 On areas fully owned by the company: 10 acres plus 10 acres in India, 20 acres in Kenya Several agronomic experiments are being conducted and results being evaluated Seedlings vs cuttings Irrigation and fertilisation effects Pruning trials Pest control Soil conditioning and micronutreints Effects of chemical stimulants Grafting trials Database considerably strenthened on most aspects by Quinvita data based on extensive trials
JPs hybridisation programme Slide 11 Jatropower has produced and is evaluating F1 hybrids and derivatives produced by crossing more than 20 elite selections Markers developed help confirm hybrids early Two of the hybrids have been selected for further evaluation and development, others under observation Jatropower has evaluated Quinvita‘s hybridisation programme and selected some for performance evaluation and possibly further development Generally the hybrids show high potential because Evident hybrid vigour in growth Continuous flowering Seed yield increase potential of over 50% over elite parents based on observations so far
Selection, and accelerated marker assisted Slide 12 varietal improvement M P1 H P2 P1 H P2 P1 H P2 P1 H P2 P1 H P2 Hybridity confirmation with markers P1 = parent 1; H = hybrid and P2 = parent 2 5 sets of different primers (Lane 1-3 – primer 1, 4-6 – primer 2, 7-9 – primer 3, 10-12 – primer 4, 13-15 – primer 5 Markers for non-toxicity and pistillate nature identified Other marker-trait associations identified, further investigations on Q9, 2014
The best JP hybrid so far (JPH1) Slide 13 Early and heavy bearing – One year old JPH1 in India
Big fruit bunches on all branches Slide 14
Scalable F1 hybrid production system Slide 15 using pistillate jatropha plants Pistillate J curcas with only Normal J curcas with male female flowers and female flowers The first scalable hybrid production farm established for the second Jatropower F1 hybrid, JPH2
In house laboratory facility Slide 16 Capabilities Seed morphology Seed oil content Non-destructive dry matter determination Free fatty acid determination Non-destructive seed oil determination (NMR to be installed this year) Fatty acid composition of plant oil (GC to be installed this year) Being developed In vivo toxicity determination procedure for jatropha seeds/oil External collaboration Marker analysis Fatty acid composition analysis Phorbol ester analysis
Other Jatropha species available at the Slide 17 farm for crossing trials Jatropha gossypifolia Jatropha mahafalensis Jatropha glandulifera Jatropha integerrima Jatropha multifada Jatropha podagrica Jatropha pandurifolia Jatropha tanjorensis Jatropha platyphylla
Slide 18 JATROPOWER AG Haldenstrasse 5 CH-6340 Baar, Switzerland Contact: Dr. George Francis, CEO Tel: +49 711 94542744 E-mail: info [at] jatropower.ch Q9, 2014
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