Global cue: Indian firm eyes wastelands for jatropha cultivation to produce biofuel

Sandip Das
Posted online: Thursday , June 26, 2008 at 22:24 hrs
Updated On: Thursday , June 26, 2008 at 22:24 hrs

At a time when developed countries like America are coming under fire for their policy of encouraging biofuel cultivation instead of foodgrains and aggravating the global food crisis, a home-grown Indian firm is embarking on an aggressive drive to use wastelands across the country to produce biofuels.

IKF Green Fuel plans to invest more than Rs 400 crore to take up Jatropha plantation and processing, including over Rs 100 crore in the farmer suicide capital of the country , Vidarbha and Marathwada. “We ensure that agricultural land is not diverted for jatropha cultivation through checking of crop records of the farmers,” says Vishal Rawat, president, Biodiesel, IKF Green Fuel.

Incidentally, a national bio fuel policy has been in the works for a while now but there has been no progress on it despite a Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by agriculture minister Sharad Pawar mulling over it since last year. The national mission on bio-diesel envisages plantation of Jatropha and Pongamia over 5 lakh hectares of non-agricultural and degraded land. “We have been taking up jatropha plantation in company-owned land, government land and through contracting farming,” Rawat told FE . IKF Green has already acquired and initiated Jatropha plantations in more than 54,000 hectares of land mostly degraded or with low agricultural output or without any secured source of irrigation across Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Jharkhand. IKF technologies would raise the required resources through a Global Depository Receipt (GDR) for which approval has been received. However, the company expects to get bio diesel out of its plantation for commercial supply by 2011 as it takes about 3-5 years before a Jatropha plant is ready for processing. The company has tied up with more than 6000 farmers mostly in Maharashtra , Karnataka, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu for initiating contract farming for Jatropha cultivation. “We are targeting around 10,000 hectares of land to given on contract farming during the current year,” Rawat said.

Besides arranging for loans facilities from the bank, the company has been providing technical support for plantation and its maintenance for 3 years to the farmers. Rawat said that the company is assuring farmers Rs 6 kg of seeds or the prices fixed by the respective state government. More than 35% oil can be extracted from Jatropha seeds and rest is glycerine. The oil seeds cake can be used for fertiliser.

IKF has already signed an agreement with Indian Oil Corporation's Research and Development wing for transferring of technology and providing technical assistance for conversion of jatropha oil into bio-fuel. “We have been in talks with Punjab National Bank, Corporation Bank and others for providing loans to farmers for jatropha cultivation,” Rawat said. With a small processing plant of 3000 litres capacity per day at Udaipur , IKF has already signed memoranda of understanding with the state governments of Gujarat and Meghalaya to set up Jatropha seed processing plants with an annual capacity of 1 lakh tonne.