From rxpgnews.com
West Bengal to encourage jatropha cultivation: Buddhadeb
By IANS,
Apr 24, 2007 - 7:51:33 PM
Haldia -, April 24 - The Communist Party of India-Marxist --led West Bengal government is now set to encourage 'agriculture-based industry' by utilising the wastelands for cultivation of feedstocks like jatropha.
'The state government will shortly come up with a clear policy earmarking all the wastelands in West Bengal. Three departments - panchayats, agriculture, and land and land reforms - are together working on this policy,' West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya said Tuesday while laying the foundation stone of a bio-diesel plant at Haldia in East Midnapore, 150 km from here.
The Emami group is setting up the bio-diesel project at Haldia, the first in eastern India, investing Rs.1.5 billion with an initial capacity of 100,000 tonnes per annum. The plant is expected to commence by 2007-end. It will come up in technical collaboration with an Italian-Belgian joint venture company, said R.S. Goenka, Emami Group's joint chairman.
Bhattacharya said after identifying these areas the state government will directly involve the local farmers for cultivation of jatropha on the wastelands.
'It's high time we switch over from conventional resources to alternative energy resources procuring bio-diesel or bio-gas. If we can encourage farmers to cultivate jatropha it would help a lot to generate bio-fuel in West Bengal,' he said.
Pointing out the importance of alternative energy resources, the chief minister said the state government has already started a pilot project for cultivating jatropha in Bankura district. He said there is huge scope to cultivate the feedstock in Purulia, West Midnapore - and Bankura districts.
To strengthen the state's economic prosperity, the government will go in for jatropha cultivation in a big way and will motivate the farmers through the district administration, zilla parishads and panchayats. The process is expected to start in the next few months.
'This bio-diesel plant will be the first such agriculture-based industrial unit in West Bengal where farmers will be directly benefited,' said Laksman Seth, chairman Haldia Development Authority.
For feeding the bio-diesel plants adequately, jatropha cultivation over an area of 100,000 acres is essential, Bhattacharya said, adding this will create employment opportunities to 200,000 people at the rate of two persons per acre of cultivation.
Currently, India produces only 22 percent of its total diesel requirement and 78 percent is imported draining off huge amounts of foreign currency reserves every year, Seth said.
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