India
December 7, 2007
The
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) of
the United Nations has committed US dollar 1.5 million funding
for a three-year biofuels research-for-development project led
by the International Crops
Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).
IFAD is the first among the development investors supporting
international agricultural research institutes under
the Consultative Group on
International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) that has
committed support for a biofuels project. The project will
facilitate farmers and entrepreneurs to utilize sweet sorghum
stalks and cassava roots in producing ethanol, and seeds of
jatropha in producing bio-diesel.
The Inter-Center project, involving ICRISAT, the International
Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and the appropriate
national agricultural research centers, will involve
popularization of the cultivation of sweet sorghum in India, the
Philippines, China and Mali; cassava in Vietnam and Colombia;
and jatropha in India and Mali. Research results on producing
ethanol from the juice of stalks of sweet sorghum and roots of
cassava, and bio-diesel from the seeds of jatropha are quite
encouraging.
According to Dr William Dar, Director General of ICRISAT, the
project will support the farmers of the drylands with the latest
research and research products and link them with the biofuel
market. Thus they will be able to improve their incomes and
livelihoods from the biofuel revolution. He thanked IFAD for
committing support to this unique project that linked multiple
crops and institutions across multiple continents.
The project facilitates entrepreneurs to utilize sweet sorghum
stalks and cassava roots in producing ethanol, and seeds of
jatropha in producing bio-diesel. The above program will be
implemented by sensitizing farmers, research partners and other
stakeholders in the production and supply chain about biofuel
production. This will enable them to work together and make use
of project's research outputs, such as, improved target crop
cultivars, production packages, seed systems, processing
technologies (including management of effluents and exploitation
of by-products), and learn about innovative input and market
linkages developed for different agro-eco-regions in the target
countries.
In addition, the project draws upon the strength of small-scale
farmers' know-how in formulating and implementing various
activities. The overall purpose of the project is thus to
facilitate small-scale farmers and landless poor to take
advantage of the market demand for their crops for bio-fuel
production and/or utilize the bio-fuels for local use (e.g.
running motor pump), which in turn, will help them improve their
livelihoods and rehabilitate the degraded lands (wherever
jatropha and local species of bio-diesel plantations are taken
up).
The project also envisages facilitating the development of
farmer-friendly procedures to enable them to take advantage of
the clean development mechanism (CDM), of the Kyoto protocol, to
improve their livelihoods. The project contributes to energy
self-sufficiency of the target countries.
Bio-fuels are gaining importance as fossil fuel prices are
skyrocketing and also the growing concerns globally over
environmental pollution associated with fossil fuels.
Considering these issues, several developed and developing
countries are formulating policies for mandatory blending of
ethanol and bio-diesel (produced from renewable sources) with
fossil fuels (petrol and diesel) resulting in a huge demand for
raw materials for producing bio-fuels.
In the semi-arid and seasonally dry tropics/sub tropics of
India, Vietnam, the Philippines, China, Mali and Colombia
millions of poor farmers cultivate sorghum and cassava as staple
food and fodder crops. Jatropha is grown as hedge/avenue and
forest shrub/tree to extract oil from the seeds for use in
lighting and for other uses such as leather tanning. |
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