Water use efficiency and morphological and physiological responses of Jatropha curcas L. irrigated and under water deficit

Abstract

There is much discussion about the alternative raw materials to replace fossil fuels. One of those alternatives, that is emerging as an excellent non-edible oil producer, adapted to the tropical climate of Brazil is jatropha. But the lack of technical and economic criteria wich support the recommendations for the culture "with technology domain" is still limitation on the recommendation of this oilseed crop as raw material for biodiesel in the short, medium and long term in different regions of Brazil. There aren't cultivars defined and there is also a great need to define the technological steps for the composition of at least two production systems for this crop, one for rainfed conditions and one for irrigated conditions. Thus the purpose of this study aims to evaluate the morphological and physiological responses of Jatropha conducted under water deficit and under full irrigation, and evaluate the efficiency of water use, the stomatal response as a function of water availability, determine the water consumption and provide the development of a strong knowledge base that will provide subsidies for the crop to be established as an option in clean, renewable bioenergy which we seek. The project will be developed in the Department of Biosystems Engineering at ESALQ-USP that has all the infrastructure and equipment necessary to achieve the proposed objectives. (AU)