Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

`Develop jatropha crop'

Staff Reporter

It should be profitable for farmers, says TNAU VC

Coimbatore: "There is a need for applying the principles of plant breeding and genetics for the improvement of `Jatropha curcas' - the bio-fuel crop - and releasing a variety that can ensure profitability to farmers and planters who grow it," said C. Ramasamy, Vice Chancellor, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University here recently.

He was on a visit to a `Jatropha curcus' farm situated in 15 acres of land. This research farm of Bio-fuel Research and Development Centre (BRDC) - which is the Research and Development unit of Enhanced Bio-fuels and Technologies (EBT) Limited, London, UK - was created with an investment of Rs. 3 crore by Mark L.M. Quinn, Managing Director of EBT and was manned by 23 scientists from India and abroad.

The vegetatively propagated crop was five months old and grown under drip irrigation.

The Vice Chancellor said that the enthusiasm for bio-fuels must be viewed against the backdrop of the country's need for oil.

Most countries encourage production of bio-fuel from edible crops, whereas `Jatropha curcas' in India was a non-edible crop.

Promoting bio-fuel from edible crops in India would create conflicting interests between food and energy sectors and thus the concept of bio-fuel from non-edible crops was much favoured.

The BRDC has evolved profitable agronomic practices like nursery techniques, optimum crop inputs like bio-fertilizers and fertilizers and time, spacing and method of planting that could ensure profitable yields.

G. Arumugam, the Chief Executive Officer and Group Science Director of BRDC said that there was a need to bring out a genetically uniform seed for mass propagation of `Jatropha curcas'.

Efforts were on to develop commercially viable extraction procedures to extract curcin from the crop. The BRDC is also doing research on bio-diesel from algae.

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