JATROPHA is definitely the crop we should be using to produce biofuel as it is a non-edible plant that grows in poor soil, is renewable and does not compete with other food stocks and will, therefore, have little effect on the food chain.

Your report "Lim: Jatropha can be nation's next big crop" (NST, Aug 6) states that farmers can only get one tonne of oil per hectare of jatropha per year.

I don't know where the company mentioned in your report is buying its jatropha feedstock but this figure of jatropha oil production is extremely low.

In Malacca, a biotech company is producing feedstock that produces three to four kilogrammes of seeds per plant. This will give between 2.2 tonnes and four tonnes of oil. This company is doing research on enhancing jatropha oil production so that in the near future a return of at least eight tonnes of oil per hectare will not be beyond reach.

Remember when oil palm was first introduced? The return (in oil production) was initially very poor, but after a few years of Malaysian research and development, the return increased many-fold.