"I had never seen something like this in my 23 years of my involvement in Africa."

Geldof, whose involvement with poverty alleviation in Africa stretches back to the 1984 launch of Band Aid, was speaking after a visit to a farm at Hluthi in the mountains of Swaziland to see the jatropha project first-hand.

Situated 200 kilometers (120 miles) south of the capital Mbabane, the 400-hectare (988-acre) farm is a hive of activity for the 250 workers who are busy planting and harvesting the tree-like plants, which grow to around five metres (16.4 feet) in height.

The plant is a drought-resistant perennial which can grow well in almost any soil and produces seeds with an oil content of some 37 percent.

A five-metre plant can be expected to yield around five kilogrammes (11 pounds) of seeds, enough to produce one litre (a quarter of a US gallon) of oil that can be used to power everything from grain mills and water pumps to even tractors.

As the demand for energy grows ever stronger, the attractions of such a plant are easy to see -- especially in a country that desperately needs to find new ways of boosting its economy.

Jatropha has already been used as an energy source in parts of Asia, such as Indonesia and the Philippines, but is still in its infancy in Africa.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization warned this month the growing use of crops such as corn and sugar to produce biofuels could drive up food prices in poor countries.

But according to D1 Oils Swaziland, which is behind the project in Hluthi, the plant can help combat poverty in much of sub-Saharan Africa.

"We are helping farmers to grow out of poverty through commercially renewable and sustainable jatropha farming in Swaziland," spokesman Tendani Tsedu told AFP.

Apart from Swaziland, the company has also obtained rights to plant the drought-withstanding crops in Zambia, Mozambique and Madagascar with an eye on making the countries players in the oil sector for the first time.

Pierre van Vuuren, one of the farmers overseeing the jatropha project in Hluthi, said the plant had the potential to transform the fortunes of farmers in the grip of Swaziland's worst drought in 15 years.

"Our country is too dry now to plant crops and it's been going on for many years, leading to most farmer abandoning their farms," said van Vuuren.

"Our maize burnt, most of my cottons crops died because of drought. We need crops that can take dry conditions. The jatropha programme can be the answer to that."

According to D1 Oils, the oil should begin to be processed from the seeds by the end of 2008, with Swaziland earmarked to host the refinery and exporting oil to the region.

But for all the hope invested in the plant, Thuli Makama, director of the Swaziland environmental group Yonge Nawe, said things could turn sour.

"How long will it be before rural people are being moved off their land to make way for these plantations?" she said.

"We agree that they have a potential to give a badly needed boost to agriculture, to earn foreign exchange and reduce dependency on oil for the poorest countries but the potential for environmental and social damage are just as great."

John Creamer of the Swaziland Investment Promotion Authority said the programme should ultimately be a major boon to the economy and provide "a guaranteed, sufficient source of fuel".

"It will tremendously help Swaziland in that once a refinery has been set up, the country's economy will boom both internally and in terms of foreign exchange coming from those importing our oil."

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