KNAW/NWO grant for interdisciplinary research program on alternative biofuel crop

KNAW and NWO’s program “Agriculture beyond Food” selected VVI’s five-year research program on the promising alternative biofuel crop Jatropha curcas for funding. The VVI will concentrate on the socio-legal aspects of the Jatropha sector in Indonesia.

Socio-legal aspects

Together with a PhD student, dr.ir. Jacqueline Vel will conduct research on the impact of legislation and policy on the actors in the ‘Jatropha-commodity chain’ and analyse which adjustments in the Indonesian legal system will be required for increasing protection of the land rights and livelihood security of the peasants in the production areas. With that focus the research continues a tradition originating in the work of professor Van Vollenhoven who held the chair for state-, administrative and customary law of the Netherlands Indies at Leiden University, from 1901 until 1931.

Biofuel crop Jatropha

The program comprises research on policy, legislation, technical crop qualities and production possibilities, and socio-economic impact of Jatropha cultivation in Indonesia. Proponents argue that this crop can grow on marginal lands and that its cultivation will not compete with food production. Moreover, Jatropha cultivation does not lead to logging tropical rainforest, and it generates additional income for the local population in the production areas. Additionally, Jatropha cultivation contributes positively to reducing global climate change, because using biodiesel made from jatopha will reduce fossil fuel consumption. All these arguments in favour of Jatropha are actually hypotheses which still need scientific verification.  

Participating partners

The Van Vollenhoven Institute will be the leading institute for this research program within a consortium that also includes:    

• the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV)
• Plant Research International and the Chair Plant Production systems of Wageningen UR
• The International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS)
• the Institute of Cultural Anthropology of the Leiden University’s Social Science Faculty
• and five partner institutions in Indonesia.
  

The VVI-researchers will cooperate with a specialist in agrarian law in Bandung, anthropologists in Leiden, Samarinda and Yogyakarta, plant scientists in Wageningen and Bogor, and historians and political ecologists from Leiden and Jakarta. KITLV and IIAS will additionally support this program by providing  post-doctoral fellowships for six international researchers.    

Research profile area

Asian Modernities and Traditions