ICRISAT promoting pro-poor biofuels initiative

Hyderabad Mar 14 (UNI) The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Trapics (ICRISAT) is linking the poor and marginal farmers of the drylands of Developing countries with global biofuels revolution, without compromising on food security.

In a statement Director General of ICRISAT Dr William Dar said ''With the fuel prices increasing globally there is a demand for ethanol from sweet sorghum and biodiesel from pongamia and jatropha. We believe this provides a wonderful opportunity for dryland farmers to get more money from their farms and wastelands.'' He said ''we called this our pro-poor biofuels initiatives for the dryland farmers where food security was not compromised.'' ICRISAT's innovative research on etahnol for biofuel from sweet sorghum and biodiesel from pongamia and jatroha crops not only ensured energy, livelihood and food security to the dryland farmers but also reduced the use of fossile fuel. This in turn could help in mitigating climate change.

These crops meet the main needs of dryland farmers as they did not require much water, could withstand stress and were not expensive to cultivate.

Mr Dar said the institute was working with governments and industry leaders to develop a partnership that would result in economic benefits for the poor and marginal farmers of the semi-arid tropics, while retaining the strong economic competitiveness for the industry.

The idea was to develop partnerships that link ICRISAT's innovative research with farmers and markets he added.

UNI