UP to cultivate jatropha for bio-fuel

The Uttar Pradesh government is setting up a jatropha nursery spread over 1,000 hectares in Bahraich district to cultivate seeds for future plantations to extract bio-diesel.

The project is aimed at augmenting farmers’ income by creating a value chain for them. The farmers would sell jatropha seeds to companies, which would extract oil and subsequently produce bio-diesel for mixing with fossil fuel.

Jatropha is a short plant, which produces oil-bearing seeds, which are then processed to produce bio-fuel. It grows on barren stretches of land, thus its farming does not affect food crops.

The government has joined hands with Biotech Park, Lucknow, for preparing the nursery under Jeevan Jyoti Pariyojna of the rural development department.

 

“The nursery is coming up on barren land of the respective gram sabha and panchayat. The local farmers would be involved in the farming and will later sell the seed,” Biotech Park Chief Executive Officer (CEO) P K Seth told Business Standard.

The planting material cost is being borne by the Centre under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS), he informed.

Typically, a jatropha plant takes three years to start producing seeds, however, it reaches optimum production after five years. The plant has a lifespan of about 50 years.

“Once the nursery blooms, it would provide seeds for jatropha plantations in the state. This would not only provide a source of regular income to farmers, but the subsequent production of bio-diesel. Mixing it with petroleum products would cut our oil import bill and help conserve environment,” he noted.

In about five years, the Centre could allow mixing of almost 20 per cent bio-diesel with fossil fuel.

Seth said the park had made substantial contribution to the National Mission on Biofuel by developing four high-yielding and oil-rich varieties of jatropha curcas and providing technical know how for development of nurseries and quality planting material.

“Recently, three companies, Indian Oil, Nandan Biometrix and Sapoorji Palonji, have formed a new entity Bharat Renewable Energy Ltd (BREL). We are providing planting material, monitoring of plants, necessary technical guidance and consultation to BREL in the field of bio-fuel,” he informed.

The Biotech Park had supplied about 600,000 jatropha plants till last year to Sultanpur, Rae Bareli, Kanpur, Jhansi and Chitrakoot districts, he added.