Planning Comm go-ahead for for bio-diesel project

New Delhi, May 19: The Planning Commission has accorded its ''in-principle'' approval for taking a demonstration programme for plantation of Jatropha Curcas in 400,000 hectares of wasteland in both forest and non-forest areas.

As per the detailed project report, 30,000 hectares of wasteland is likely to be taken for Jatropha plantation in Chhattisgarh under the programme, Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture Kanti Lal Bhuria told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply. He said tree-borne oilseeds plants, particularly Jatropha and Karanja have been identified as potential crops for bio-diesel production in the country.

A Central scheme called Integrated Development of Tree Borne Oilseeds is being implemented for promotion of bio-diesel.

Plantations have been raised on government and institutional farms by using elite planting material. The produce from these model plantations will be used as quality planting material for mass plantation on farmer's field, the minister said.

UNI