Crops in Botswana grow slowly due to dryness and cold-weather, and this is a barrier to the accomplishment of a low carbon society based upon bioenergy. However, the nation has an abundance of wild plants that can hold up against dryness and winter season cold. It also has big numbers of Jatropha trees, whose seeds have abundant quantities of an oil considered to hold great promise as a biofuel. The goal of this task is to use these resources to develop jatropha curcas ranges that are resistant to dryness and winter and deal high efficiency, as well as to establish techniques of cultivating these ranges. In this way, a biological technique will assist to achieve a low carbon society.

Creating a bioenergy production model based upon the nation’s own biological resources A database of biological resource data relating to Jatropha will be built and appropriate ranges will be developed. Moreover, in this arid region that is subject to winter, efforts will be made to establish a growing system that is versatile with respect to environment modification. The project will work to build a production design utilizing plant genetic resources that are indigenous to Botswana.