AP plans for Jathropa plantation in large scale

Mumbai, Sep 14 (UNI) Andhra Pradesh government has chalked out an ambitious plan to plant Jathropa in a big way, informed the State's minister for Agriculture Raghuveera Reddy today.

Inaugurating a day-long second global conference on 'Green fuel_an eco-friendly, farm grown next generation fuel' here today, he informed that the State government had its plans to grow Jathropa plant in an area of 13 lakh acres, one lakh acre in each of the 13 selected districts. The state government was extending 100 per cent fund support for such projects and 90 per subsidy for drip irrigation system, he said.

A sum of Rs 10,000 per acre was being paid in the form of subsidy by the state government for a period of three years to the Jathropa growers in the state. Also, the state was all set to go for maize production in a big way to extract ethanol. While Jathropa can be blended with the petrol up to 20 per cent, the same figure was 15 per cent in the case of ethanol, informed the minister.

The conference was aimed to apprise major benefits that can be accurued from one of the most promising alternative to crude based fuel used in automobile and power generation.

Chairman of FICCI-western region council Sushil Kr Jiwarajka said that the country's oil import bill was to the tune of 43 billion USD per annum. In case we are able to get three tons of Jathropa seeds per hectare of Jathropa plantation, then it can save fuel upto one ton thus minimizing our dependency on Gulf countries for petrol and petroleum products, he said.

National Oilseeds and Vegetable Oil Development Board (NOVOD), which functions under Union Ministry of Agriculture, was busy framing some farmer-friendly policies towards this direction, informed its executive director, Dr M S Punia on the occasion. The director of FICCI-WRC, Dr Vijayanti Pandit, was also present on the occasion.

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