The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : “Produce alternative energy”

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 22, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

“Produce alternative energy”

Staff Reporter

Jatropha cultivation will save foreign exchange

— Photo: S. James.

AWARENESS: Vice-Chancellor of Alagappa University P. Ramasamy handing over pamphlets to a farmer in Madurai on Friday.

MADURAI: Jatropha cultivation would save huge foreign exchange spent on crude oil besides providing income-generating opportunity for rural people, Madurai Kamaraj Univeristy Vice-Chancellor P. Maruthamuthu said.

Speaking at a seminar on bio-diesel for farmers and panchayat presidents, Dr. Maruthamuthu said that the country wanted more oil for comfortable mobility. “Even if we are able to produce an alternative energy for 20 per cent of our requirements, we can save huge foreign exchange,” he said.

Jatropha would give its yield for 35 long years, Dr. Maruthamuthu said adding that it did not require much efforts for the people who raised the plants in their backyard.

The Government policy was that such plants were not grown on agricultural land, but only on waste land, no edible oil should be used as an alternative for fuel.

Vice-Chancellor of Alagappa University P. Ramasamy lamented that the universities and the education institutions failed to exchange knowledge on agriculture with farmers.

Stating that farmers were increasingly giving up agricultural activity, he said that it led to the sector registering a poor growth rate of 0.42 per cent since 1993.

He predicted that there would be a revolution in the sector as farming activity in backyard would become popular as people would depend on them for their food and medicine.

Stating that farmers no more got their due respect, he said school syllabus should be modified to propagate the talents of farmers.

Founder chairman of Meenakshi Mission Hospital and Research Centre N. Sethuraman said that the nation’s oil bills would double in the next two decades.

He would take efforts to provide two jatropha plants each to 2.5 lakh families in the region and those who successfully raised them would be given an incentive of Rs.100 after five years.

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