Agriculture ministry likely to take over bio-diesel mission

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New Delhi, May 4: The government is contemplating shifting bio-diesel mission from rural development ministry to agriculture ministry. The shift is being contemplated to give a boost to the project which can reduce India’s dependence on imported oil to as much as 20% in case of diesel.

Although the project was launched as a national mission on bio-fuels as per the recommendations of a committee on development of bio-fuels with rural development ministry as the nodal ministry, not much progress has been made. During 2004-05 a small amount of Rs 9 crore was earmarked for the project. The rural development ministry, however, managed to spend only Rs 20 lakh as per the revised estimates for the fiscal. The allocation for current year has been scaled up to Rs 45 crore.

The issue of bio-diesel has assumed significance in view of spiralling prices of crude oil in the international market. The crude prices, according to World Bank and other estimates, would settle at a higher level in the medium term.

The issue of shifting the bio-diesel mission to agriculture ministry was discussed at a high level meeting on bio-fuel production through jatropha plantation recently. The suggestion to shift the project to agriculture ministry was made by the representatives of the department of biotechnology.

India, it may be mentioned, consumes about 110 million tonne of petroleum products in a year. Domestic production takes care of only 30% of the country’s demand. The remaining 70% of the demand is met through imports. As far as diesel is concerned, India consumes about 40.6 million tonne in a year. It is possible to mix up to 20% of non-edible oil from jatropha curcas with diesel.