Breeding of Jatropha For Oil, Phorbol and Quantitative Traits for Sustainable Yield Under Agroforestry System

Continuous emission of carbon from fossil fuels into the environment causes an adverse effect in the form of climate change and global warming. To overcome these issues, the world is moving towards zero carbon emission using alternative renewable resources of energy such as biodiesel. In this context, different biofuel potential plants are screened, and Jatropha curcas has been suggested as a promising biofuel crop. But because of toxic nature with low oil percentage in most of the Jatropha germplasm, it requires a precise breeding programme to increase oil percentage and other desirable features. After rigorous breeding programme, the first cultivar Chhatrapati of Jatropha was released, but low seed yield was the major drawback. This indicates a more precise breeding programme required for the development of high yielding desirable cultivars. In the current scenario, the cultivar JPNT 1 is the first commercial non-toxic high yielding Jatropha with 62–64% kernel oil. Similarly, cultivar JO S2 was released from the National University of Singapore having 45.90% seed oil content. Various researchers from different institutes are focusing on breeding of Jatropha for high seed yield, oil content and non-toxicity for the development of promising cultivars/hybrids. Therefore, this book chapter has critically reviewed on profound information of breeding outcomes for high oil, low phorbol, quantitative traits and promising developed and released genotypes yet.