The state government of Andhra Pradesh has recently informed in an official statement that it is thinking of raising pongamia plantations in over 8,800 hectares, in a bid to boost the bio-diesel industry in the State. The plantations are spread across 16 districts of the state and the project is having an estimated total cost of Rs 23.41 crore. The government officials have informed that the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has already sanctioned the project under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) XIII to the State.
According to the official statement released by the state government of Andhra Pradesh, an amount of Rs 22.4 crore, out of the total cost, would be the loan component from Nabard and the government would share another Rs 1.17 crore for the project. The statement added that the Government of Andhra Pradesh was still awaiting the administrative approval for the project. However, the statement said that an amount of Rs 20 crore had already been released during the year of 2007-08 under the previous RIDF bio-diesel project and an expenditure of Rs 13.28 crore had also been incurred in order raise the bio-diesel plantations.
While talking about the potentials of the project, an expert said that the tree-borne oilseeds have promising potential for supplementing the vegetable oil supply in India. The expert said that these oil seeds grow in poor soils under low rainfall conditions and as they do not have any competition with the annual food crops, they can easily fill the gaps in the ecological niche. The expert added that the promotion and development of such crops would also help meeting the societal needs of the eco-conservation, the expansion of rural industries, the rural employment generation and also to supplement the supply of alternate fuel to petro-diesel.
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| Posted : 4/1/2008 |
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