DR RS Kureel, director, National Oilseeds and Vegetable Oils Development
Board (NOVOD), ministry of agriculture, has been working for over a
decade on plants for biofuels. He spoke to Civil
Society about the problems and prospects of growing oil
bearing trees to meet India’s energy needs.
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Dr RS Kureel, director, NOVOD |
Can India achieve its target of five per cent replacement
of diesel with bio-diesel?
For that we need 2.5 million hectares to grow jatropha.
At present we have around 300,000 hectares in 23 states
for cultivation of jatropha. If we achieve five per cent,
we plan to increase our target to 10 per cent. The
government wants to take it to 20 per cent.
Everybody is complaining about lack of raw material.
Plantations started only two or three years ago so trees
have just started fruiting. In five years we will be able to
provide material to the oil extraction plants. We have to
cultivate more jatropha and karanja. We have identified
land in 21 states which we can cover in a phased manner.
Will growing such trees give good returns to farmers?
At present the material with farmers gives hardly one to two kg yield per
plant. We suggest cultivation of 1,700 to 1,800 plants in one hectare. The
advantage of jatropha is it requires little water. Soil depth should be 1.5 to
two feet and oil content should be more than 30 per cent. Currently it varies
between 20 per cent to 40 per cent.
Do you think jatropha is the route to go?
It will be.
But there are so many uncertainties.
We have to develop high-yielding varieties that are suitable for dryland and
other areas and have high oil content. By next year our network of research
institutions should have developed high yielding varieties. We are working
on converting jatropha into an annual crop.
I am also suggesting that we work on ethanol. We have
got plentiful opportunities for ethanol production and
not just from sugarcane. We are making ethanol only by
using molasses. But we have options like sweet potato,
cassava, potato, maize. We can also use cellulose material
like paddy, wheat straw or any vegetable waste.
This five per cent target can be reached by using ethanol?
Ethanol can do much more than a mere five per cent. All
our petrol consumption is 9.4 million tonnes. However
our diesel consumption is 53 million tonnes. So replacing
petrol is a little easy. But diesel is difficult because we are
already short of vegetable oils. We produce only 7.2
million tonnes of vegetable oil against our requirement of
11.5 million tones. We are importing four or sometimes
5.5 million tones.
So are you saying work on ethanol instead?
I’m saying work on both. It is up to the consumer. If the
consumer demands petrol vehicles, then companies will
have to put petrol cars on the road and this will lower diesel consumption.
The reason consumers go for diesel cars is because diesel is cheaper.
The forest department can lease land to tribals and forest-dwellers .
We have consulted the forest department and shared our plans with all 21
states. Leasing land to tribals or giving them user rights to degraded forest
land has been discussed. It is people living in and around forests who can be
given this opportunity. It is a good idea.
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