Uttaranchal has become the first state in the country to take up cultivation of jatropha in a big way to produce biodiesel and generate employment for its people. The state government has set up a Bio-Fuel Board, taking steps to promote its cultivation in seven districts in the first phase.While ever increasing prices of carbon fuels like diesel and petrol and depleting reservoirs have forced planners and scientists the world over to think of sustainable alternate fuels, Uttaranchal which has the ideal geographic conditions for growing jatropha, has decided to popularise the plant among its farmers.The cultivation of jatropha is considered ideal at a height of 5,000 feet above sea level—most of Uttaranchal’s area falls in this category. The state has an added advantage. More than 60 per cent of its total geographic area falls under forests.In a bid to promote jatropha and also to provide income to the rural poor, the state government has decided to cover nearly 5,500 sq km of degraded forest lands. Farmers are being given incentives and the State Forest Corporation has been appointed the nodal agency to provide jatropha seeds to farmers at the rate of Rs 3 per kg.More than 12,000 Van Panchayats of Uttaranchal will monitor the scheme that is to be conducted by farmers’ cooperatives formed in areas that are under jatropha cultivation.About 8,000 farmers in Dehra Dun, Pauri, Tehri, Chamoli, Nainital, Champawat and Bageshwar districts are growing the plant in an area of 360 hectares. ‘‘We would be increasing the area to 10,000 hectares this year. Our target is two lakh hectares in the next few years,’’ says Nav Parbhat, Uttaranchal Forest and Urban Development Minister.‘‘After the production of jatropha seeds in next three years, three storage facilities would also be set up in the state and the farmers would sell the seeds at the rate of Rs 3 per kg,’’ says Nav Prabhat.
