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Turning the underutilised into fertile lands

M. Soundariya Preetha

Plans on to bring 40,000 hectares under jatropha cultivation in the State

PLANTING BEGINS: Banks to help farmers

COIMBATORE: Underutilised lands could turn into fertile farms and farmers can be assured of a price for their produce - this is a project to produce 100 per cent bio-diesel from jatropha.

Joint venture

D1-Mohan Bio Oils Limited - a joint venture of Mohan Breweries and Distilleries and U.K.-based D1 Oils Plc - plans to bring one lakh hectares under jatropha cultivation in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh this year, including 40,000 ha in Tamil Nadu, through contract farming. (D1 Oils is a company that provides technology, plants, machinery and expertise to grow feedstock and convert vegetable oil into bio-diesel to standards stipulated by the European Union). The joint venture company enters into agreement with farmers, supplies seedlings and provides technical guidance to them with the assurance that it will buy back jatropha seeds at Rs. 5 a kg. "The planting has started and response has been encouraging," says Chief Executive Officer of D1 Oils Philip Wood.

The company has also entered into a Memorandum of Agreement with two banks to help farmers participate in the programme. Going a step further, the company is expected to commission a refinery plant in Chennai early next year.

It has already tested palmolein on it. When the jatropha seeds are ready, it will start using jatropha at the refinery plant that has a capacity of 8,000 tonnes of oil a year. It is, however, yet to decide modalities to distribute bio-diesel produced by this plant. The market is not a problem as global need of bio-diesel is large, he says.

Development centre

As part of its programme in India, D1 Oils has set up a product development centre here that takes up research on jatropha. The company aims to take oil yield from jatropha seed to 2.7 tonnes a hectare and "we will reach it in two or three years," Mr. Wood adds.

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