Revive jatropha project: Zicosu

THE Zimbabwe Congress of Students Unions (Zicosu) has urged Government to resuscitate the jatropha diesel project at Masvingo Polytechnic that was abandoned almost a decade ago.

The project, pioneered by students was discontinued after Government nationalised it and set a jatropha diesel plant at Mt Hampden near Harare.

At its inception, the jatropha diesel project at Masvingo Polytechnic was touted as a cash cow for the institution that was planning to commercially run the venture.

Zicosu secretary-general Mr Tapiwa Marongere said the new political dispensation should allow institutions of higher learning to be designated special economic zones.

He blamed the previous political administration for collapsing the jatropha diesel project started by students at Masvingo Polytechnic.

“We are advocating what we call one-stop-shops at tertiary institutions,” said Mr Marongere.

“Tertiary institutions should be designated special economic zones.”

Mr Marongere said Masvingo Polytechnic should be given an opportunity to continue with a project that was started by students at the institution.

“I have a background of Masvingo Polytechnic and they were the first to invent a plant that used jatropha seeds to make diesel before the project was nationalised by Government and nothing eventually came out of it,” he said.

“Our appeal to the relevant authorities is they must allow the jatropha diesel project at Masvingo Polytechnic to be resuscitated because at the moment there is nothing that is happening in the field of making diesel using jatropha seeds.”

Mr Marongere said Government was supposed to encourage innovations at institutions of higher learning by extending more financial and material resources for research.

He said institutions of higher learning were repositories of knowledge, which could be exploited to solve some of the country’s pressing economic challenges.

The jatropha diesel project at Masvingo Polytechnic was discontinued after the institution had already started moves to grow the plant at its farm in the province with a view to run the jatropha plant commercially.

Government once entertained the idea of making diesel from jatropha, but the multi-million dollar plant built on the outskirts of Harare is now a white elephant.