Pongamia pinnata or ‘honge’ as it is commonly known (also ponge or Indian beech) is a widely occurring tree throughout India, from sea level to about 1500 meters in altitude. It is also found in other countries ranging from to the Middle East, through Myanmar, the Philippines and Australia. Indian villagers had a tradition of growing a fence of honge on the boundaries of their land to provide oil for fuel, to serve as wind brakes and help to conserve moisture for farms. Although some can be seen today, paucity of financial resources and the loss of rural community have led to the cutting down of these trees and selling them as firewood.

Research indicates that as a plantation, ‘honge’ yields in excess of 10 tonnes of seeds per hectare on maturing.  The root system is extensive as they drive to a depth of 10 meters enabling the tree to extract water from far beneath the ground surface - unlike agricultural crops which use only 150 mm of topsoil.  Therefore it flourishes in dry areas where agriculture is unproductive and in poor or saline soils. This gives survivability during dry periods and annual output per hectare exceeding many agricultural crops.  

Honge normally starts yielding within 3 years to produce a seed.  The seeds produce 30% oil indicating that oil yields of 3 MT per hectare can be achieved prior to application of the Equitech System. The expectation is that with its systems being applied to polyploided honge hybrids yields of the order of 4 MT per hectare could be expected. This becomes increasingly attractive as honge can be mechanically harvested and the trees will ideally suit situations of degraded, saline land with questionable ability to supply plantation labour.