Unresolved problems in Jatropha Biodiesel

 

It is my pleasure, that Institute of Applied Systems & Rural Development, New Delhi has invited me to deliver this key note address at this seminar on biodiesel being held today in Yashwantrao Chauhan Open University Nasik.

 

Today our national priority is to find ways for energy security. Bio-diesel is an important aspect of this discussion.

 

I wish to elaborate three points in this Seminar. Before that I wish to specify that given the abundance of Jatropha and Karanj these are our two main sources of non-edible oil for bio-diesel. Unlike the western countries, we cannot use edible oils for bio-diesel. For today's discussion, bio-diesel means diesel produced from Jatropha oil. I am not considering bio-diesel made-up of edible oil as in other countries or bio-diesel made-up of other non-edible oil seeds in India.

 

Point-1

 

Rough estimates by Planning Commission say that within 3 years after cultivation the Jatropha plant, it can give total output of 2 ton seeds per hectare every year. But 3 important questions arise, (a) What kind of land should be utilized existing farm land or waste land? (b) By whom it should be utilized? (c) Under whose guidance it should be utilized? If the cultivation has to be made on waste land owned by govt. or govt. Institutions, then govt. should immediately take decisions about the terms and conditions and tenure and rent. The actual cultivator as well as a person who is a caretaker of crops for 3 years, should be a farmer or a farm labour, because no person other than a farmer can take care of crops or provide correct amount of fertilizers or water, to crops. Any ordinary person would not be suitable and only a farmer can handle this work. But the farmer needs guidance from experts. Govt. hopes that experts from agriculture colleges would have most suitable people to guide farmers but so far agricultural Institutes have researched only on technical aspects & not on economical aspects. Many institutions have vast lands. My own department has institutions of agriculture, fishery, milk production, poultry farms etc. who have so many hectare of unused land out of which 100 hectare land can be easily used for cultivation of Jatropha. But expert from agricultural universities whom we can consult regarding how much would be the expenditure & what cultivation practices to follow for next 3 years are not available. Agricultural universities have not come up with economic solutions as yet.

 

Point 2

 

Out of an experiment conducted nearly 10-15 years back in Nasik & the experiments now conducted by farmers from Haryana the first one in Nasik was based on cooperative principles and has been unsuccessful. But we can see that farmers from Haryana have been successful. The reason is that their expenditure on management is zero. Farmers cultivate Jatropha on some part of their own land and use the oil directly for tractors and pumps. These experiments have started from 2-3 years & have not been harmful at all to the machinery. But if we wish to cultivate Jatropha on commercial basis and make oil and Bio-diesel out of that as a big business, then it is possible that it would not be commercially viable initially. As a solution to this, PCRA had proposed a CDM project in the Ministry of environment & forest, Government of India when I was in PCRA. It was a project about chain of production of Jatropha seeds by 10,000 farmers and extraction of oil by 100 small ghani owners and production of Bio-diesel by one industry. The Bio-diesel so produced and used saves environment from pollution, the net worth of which stands at some crores in international market. Each farmer can be provided a bonus of Rs.1500/- per hectare every year out of these funds. Our estimate was that some amount can be given to the oil extractors, those who produce Bio-diesel, and also those who use or promote bio-diesel. Thus CDM market can become a source for additional money for Jatropha growers.

 

Point - 3

 

On the basis of this estimate many more institutions in country can prepare carbon trading project for international level. But there is a problem, which I want to discuss here. There are such institutions on one end who have capacity to prepare projects and handle legal aspects at international levels. On the other end we have people in actual production e.g. farmers, and ghani owners and producers of Bio-diesel. In between these two ends, there should be a separate institution at a middle level who can undertake a survey in authentic manner. These institutions can make a survey about how much was the cultivation, collection, filteration and production of Bio-diesel, out of which how much has reached the actual consumers and has been utilized. Until & unless such authentic and independent survey is available, it is difficult to approve the project prepared for carbon trading on international level, or to convince international market of CDM.

 

At this seminar I wish to inform you that, out of above points, it is necessary to discuss third point with secretary, Department of Environment & Forest, Government of India and to set up good survey agency under his guidance. I wish that both the Nashik Mukta Vidyapeeth and IASRD should initiate this dialogue. If we get reasonable income from carbon trading project in international market, then only our farmer can get more income in Jatropha cultivation and if this happens, the development of research as made out in 1^st point would be much faster.

 

I wish to stop here. I am thankful to Nasik University and IASRD who conducted this seminar.

 

Jai Hind.