How Chhattisgarh fuelled a green flight

RAIPUR: In Chhattisgarh’s Ghatbehra village, Sohraj Singh Kanwar has been growing jatropha for a decade. “We heard that a plane flew on jatropha oil,” he says, adding, “The seeds came from these fields.”
Seeds from these fields are sent to a biofuel plant in Raipur, run by Chhattisgarh Bio-Diesel Authority (CBDA), where oil is extracted and sent to Dehradun-based Indian Institute of Petroleum, which developed the biofuel.
Jatropha plantation was launched in Ghatbehra, a village of 600 people in Pendra tehsil of Bilaspur, about 13 years ago. “Finally, we are seeing the benefit of growing this crop. We hope its demand will increase,” says Kanwar.
Farmers planted jatropha alongside traditional crops in the late-2000s, after the BJP came to power in 2003 and CM Raman Singh launched a campaign to promote jatropha cultivation with the aim to become India’s bio-fuel hub.
In 2006, Singh started using jatropha biofuel in his official car and the government drew up plans to hand over barren lands to private players for large-scale cultivation of jatropha. Between 2005 and 2009, 2,774 lakh jatropha trees were planted. Then, allegations of corruption in procurement of saplings all slowed down the plan.
CBDA, however, continued its research and awareness campaigns, encouraging farmers to grow the plant and buying the seeds. It would be years before they reaped the benefits though. In January 2017, Singh’s government signed an agreement with CBDA to use biofuel from the state for trials in aircraft.
“CSIR was to help create a robust rural network for collection, storage and supply of jatropha oil and other seeds to produce aviation biofuel,” said Sumit Sarkar, project head of Chhattisgarh Biofuel Development Authority. CBDA, like IIP, is part of the Dehradun-based Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
“We held seminars to encourage farmers to return to jatropha,” said Sarkar. CBDA fixed the minimum support price for jatropha at Rs 14 a kg. “Farmers were paid immediately. This worked wonderfully because jatropha is harvested in October-November. Farmers were delighted to get cash in the festive season,” Sarkar explained.
More than 500 farmers, mainly in Pendra-Marwahi blocks of Bilaspur, signed up. Over 600 tonnes of seeds have been collected in the past 18 months. Only seeds with 32% oil content, 12% moisture and 98% physical purity are used. The crude oil produced at the CBDA plant in Raipur is transported to IIP. “Four kilos of seeds give 1kg of fuel. The remaining 3kg cake is crushed and used as organic manure,” Sarkar said.
IIP had been working on biofuel for a while but the challenge was a sustainable supply of jatropha. That’s when CBDA came to the rescue. “In the past 17 months, CBDA did a lot of groundwork. More than 20 tonnes of jatropha crude oil was produced to keep IIP supplied,” Sarkar said.
On August 27, Sarkar was one of the 25 people on board the Spicejet flight from Dehradun to Delhi. “It was the culmination of years of hard work on the seed of an idea,” he said.