• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Our Bureau

Let farmers `sow their own power', say experts

Hyderabad May 28 Experts in agriculture, chemistry and bio-diesel studies have called for a national-level policy to let farmers "sow their own power" to meet their energy needs on and off the farm fields.

"We need to make it a way of life for them," experts from 18 States who met at the Administrative Staff College of India here felt.

They discussed strategies to make optimum use of bio-diesel to meet the energy requirements in rural areas and had come out with a set of recommendations to give a thrust to the bio-diesel programme in the country.

The experts called for preparation of a national programme to promote public-private participation to encourage clusters of power generation units based on non-edible vegetable oils.

Demo units

To induce the farmers to take up such units, the country could evolve demonstration models of medium-sized power plants.

Smaller models should also be established to cater to the needs of individual farmers not covered under cluster area approach.

The experts also recommended a large-scale programme to encourage jatropa plantations in 50 plus hectares with good management practices.

Task force

The meeting had also called for setting up a task force comprising technically competent persons to take up the bio-diesel programme in a mission mode.

The National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources might be entrusted with the task of collection of relevant germplasm for bio-fuel development and such data and collection should be shared with other research institutes.

The agricultural research institutions must focus on jatropha and a few more selected prospective oil-bearing crops to develop superior genotypes or hybrids.

More Stories on : Cultivation | Non-conventional Energy | Economy

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
NCDEX to meet jeera body members today in Unjha

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line