Kalam for focus on research to up foodgrain production

The Anand Agricultural University (AAU) needs to focus on research areas in agriculture and allied sciences to reach the production target of 400 million tonne of foodgrains per year by 2020, said President A P J Abdul Kalam.

Speaking at a demonstration on biotechnology at Anand, Kalam said this has to be done in partnership with farmers and entrepreneurs.

Speaking on "Research missions in the second green revolution", the President said while the first green revolution enabled India to produce more than 200 million tonne of food grains per year, the second one will have the farmers in focus, farming technology as the friend, food processing and marketing as partners and the consumers as the ultimate gainers.

Commenting on the prospects of Jatropha cultivation and hence the production of bio-fuel, Kalam said India has nearly 63 million hectare of wasteland, out of which 33 million hectare of wasteland has been allotted for tree plantation.

In Gujarat, he said, nearly two million hectare of culturable land is available and Jatropha can grow in this wasteland with very little inputs. Once grown, the crop has a 50-year old life and fruiting takes place in this plant in two years.

At present, the cost of bio-diesel through the plant is approximately Rs 17-19 per litre, which can be substantially reduced through the choice of right size of the plant and using high yield variety plantation which has already been established by the researchers, the President said.

Bio-diesel plants grown in one million hectares of land can yield a revenue of about Rs 2,000 crore a year and provide employment to over 10 lakh people, he said.

The President referred to the experiment which has been carried out by Daimler- Benz in collaboration with CSIR laboratories of running a Benz car from Pune to Delhi using 10 per cent blend of bio-fuel, without any modification to the engine.

Now is the time for the AAU to come out with a proposal which can provide answers to all the questions of farmers, financial institutions, entrepreneurs who are keen to set up fully integrated bio-diesel plants.

The President also spoke on the need to use municipal solid waste in the production of electricity. The potential for converting municipal waste into useable energy, which will eliminate a major source of urban pollution, was realised by one of our innovative organisations, Technology Information Forecasting and Assessment Council, which helped in developing a completely indigenous solution for the processing of waste into a source of fuel, Kalam said. This fuel could, in turn, be used for generation of electricity through mini power plants, he added.