Mechanical jatropha harvester successfully trialed in Honduras
In Honduras, the Agroipsa Farm in Choluteca has deployed the BEI Jatropha Wave Harvester, a mechanical harvesting system for jatropha which has successfully completed an eight-month trial of the system, according to BEI International, the harvester’s manufacturer. the system was used for mechanical harvest of a 550 hectare plantation of three-year old jatriopha. Max Lint of BEI reports, “it is feasible to grow and harvest jatropha on a commercial scale. We are working with many jatropha growers around the world that have a need for our jatropha harvester. We are currently working on a jatropha harvester sale in Hawaii and another in Brazil.”
The harvester can be seen on YouTube here.
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Category: International
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[...] There’s an awful lot of jatropha going into the ground in various parts of the world. One thing that would make jatropha a lot more economically feasible is a mechanical jatropha harvester. It’s not very sexy technology, in so many ways – no synthbio, no Nobel Prizes in sight, but harvesters are absolutely key to taking any crop from serving a subsistence economy and making it effectively serve an industrial economy. Traditional tree shakers don’t get the job done. Lately, BEI says it has developed such a technology, and is trialling it now, down in Honduras at the Agroipsa Farm. Here’s more on that. [...]