Stating this, C S Jadhav, a senior official of the company, said Nandan plans to bring about 100,000 acres under Jatropha cultivation in Rajasthan.

"We will also be establishing Nursery Production Centre to produce quality Jatropha plantlets and a demonstration plot to educate the farmers on latest technology for Jatropha cultivation in the state," Jadhav added.

He was of the view that cultivation of Jatropha would bring in unproductive lands under agriculture, increase the green cover in the state and provide direct employment in the agriculture sector.

Later setting up of bio-refineries will help accelerate industrialisation in Rajasthan further, provide direct and indirect employment in rural areas and also help the country and the state meet its energy requirements.

The global demand for crude oil has been rising by 2 per cent every year and the demand is expected to rise by about 50-60 per cent over the next 20 years. There is a greater need for renewable and cleaner energy sources like bio-fuels to reduce the dependence on crude oil.

Carefully designed bio-fuel strategy using non-edible oil seeds like Jatropha may be the only solution to reduce our oil imports. Jatropha can be grown in almost any type of soil, is drought-tolerant, needs minimum management and can be propagated easily.

Jatropha plants start yielding seeds from the 2nd year till the next 30-35 years and the oil extracted from Jatropha seeds can be used to make bio-diesel.

"The company is looking for entrepreneurs who wish to promote Jatropha crop by becoming our franchisee and be part of our bio-diesel value chain. We will provide all the technical assistance for Jatropha cultivation and later buy seeds back," he said.

He said that Nandan aims to be the largest bio-diesel producer in India and has an integrated bio-refinery model with both forward and backward linkages. Nandan is the first company in the world to apply for four Jatropha patents for high-yield and oil content.

It is embarking on large scale Jatropha cultivation of over two million acres (800,000 hectares) spread across Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Orissa and Jharkhand. It has tied up with International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad, for Jatropha crop research.