BIODESEL
2. Government's Policies:
Government of India started BioFuel mission in 2003, but it announced BioFuel Policy on 11th September 2008. The Union Cabinet in its meeting gave its approval for the National Policy on Biofuel prepared by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, and also approved for setting up of an empowered National Biofuel Coordination Committee, headed by Prime Minister of India and a Biofuel Steering Committee headed by Cabinet Secretary.
Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has been given the responsibility for the National Policy on Biofuels and overall co-ordination by Prime Minister under the Allocation of Business Rules. A proposal on "National Policy on Biofuels & its Implementation" was prepared after wide scale consultations and inter-Ministerial deliberations. The draft Policy was considered by a Group of Ministers (GoM) under the Chairmanship of Shri Sharad Pawar, Union Minister of Agriculture, Food & Public Distribution. After considering the suggestions of Planning Commission and other Members, the Group of Ministers recommended the National Biofuel Policy to the Cabinet.
Salient features of the National Biofuel Policy are as under:
1. An indicative target of 20% by 2017 for the blending of biofuels - bioethanol and bio-diesel has been proposed.
2. Bio-diesel production will be taken up from non-edible oil seeds in waste / degraded / marginal lands.
3. The focus would be on indigenous production of bio-diesel feedstock and import of Free Fatty Acid (FFA) based such as oil, palm etc. would not be permitted.
4. Bio-diesel plantations on community / Government / forest waste lands would be encouraged while plantation in fertile irrigated lands would not be encouraged.
5. Minimum Support Price (MSP) with the provision of periodic revision for bio-diesel oil seeds would be announced to provide fair price to the growers. The details about the MSP mechanism, enshrined in the National Biofuel Policy, would be worked out carefully subsequently and considered by the Bio-fuel Steering Committee.
6. Minimum Purchase Price (MPP) for the purchase of bio-ethanol by the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) would be based on the actual cost of production and import price of bio-ethanol. In case of biodiesel, the MPP should be linked to the prevailing retail diesel price.
7. The National Biofuel Policy envisages that bio-fuels, namely, biodiesel and bio-ethanol may be brought under the ambit of "Declared Goods" by the Government to ensure unrestricted movement of biofuels within and outside the States. It is also stated in the Policy that no taxes and duties should be levied on bio-diesel.
• Oil companies have declared their own BioDiesel Purchase Policy. These companies offer a price of Rs. 26.50 per liter of BioDiesel, which is less than half the current manufacturing cost of BioDiesel.
• Large patches of land are required for plantation of Jatropha. Government holds large tracts of land as Forest Lands and Revenue lands. In some states, like Chattisgarh, these are leased to State owned Oil company like IOC.
• UP Jatropha mission of Uttar Pradesh is a Joint venture of BPCL, Nandan Biomatrics and Shapoorji Pallonji and is supported by UP Government. Presently, they are going to tie-up with every Panchayat (Local Body) of selecetd Districs to plant Jatropha on Panchayat lands. Jatropha seeds will be bought back by BPCL in long run. Operation of this mission may be very slow due to Government's and Panchayat's involvement and because it is implemented through National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. IOC is also planning to enter in UP as well as some others. Individual farmers are ready to plant Jatropha in their useless and waste lands and want buy-back agreement like contract farming with good price (But price offered is generally very low). Bundelkhand has lots of waste land (600,000 - 700,000 hectares) which are best suited for Jatropha and on the other hand Districts of Eastern UP have saline and waste lands which are also suitable for plantation.
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