Ab van Peer, MASc, owner of Jatropha Pro

Ab van Peer studied general horticulture at the Private University of Applied Sciences G. A. van Swieten Hogere Tuinbouwschool in Frederiksoord, the Netherlands.

He specialized in  taxonomy, soil science, plant fertilization and forestry.

Ab has been affiliated with a whole range of International companies

During an assignment with SNV (Dutch Government volunteer’s organization) he developed systems to control erosion in rice fields in Ivory Coast.

For  the Dutch based but International operating company Arcadis he became the specialist for trees in urban area’s and he was involved in landscaping projects in Saudi Arabia, Al Ain and Iraq.

For DIGS (Dutch government) he became plant propagation specialist and trainer for extension officers at the Horticultural station in Tengeru, Tanzania.

For  Scotts International worldwide (now ICL-SF) he developed a new fertilizer concept for the oil palm nursery market in Asia.

In the field of Jatropha he was Agronomy director for D1 Oils South East Asia where he started Jatropha trials in Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia (Mardi) and he fulfilled field- and training missions for Diligent in Tanzania, Eneco/Max Havelaar in Tanzania, the Berl/TNT project in Malawi, and the USAID supported Michigan State University project regarding Jatropha potential in Senegal and Mali. For these projects he published the online Growing Jatropha Manual.

He visited other Jatropha related projects in  India, South Africa, Australia, Brazil, Cambodia, Laos, China and lately in Ghana.

He executed and finished Jatropha test pilots for the Dutch fair trade organization Max Havelaar in Bukoba, Mbinga and Moshi (Tanzania), trough his own company Jatropha.Pro. The test pilots showed the potential for small scale farming of successful intercropping from Jatropha with a food crop on local level.

He publishes a database with over 800 jatropha related reports here

Ab lives in the Netherlands and speaks fluent Dutch, English, French and German, and some Kiswahili and Malay.