Plant Jatropha, says Chhattishgarh CM – Suggests it can bail out Vidarbha farmers – The Times of India, Nagpur

Can Jatropha, the wonder oilseed plant, bring back cheer in Vidarbha where 634 distressed farmers have committed suicide in the last 13 months due to an unprecedented agrarian crisis? Chhattishgarh Chief Minister Raman Sing believes it can.

Cutting across party lines, BJP CM, Maharashtra BJP president Nitin Gadkari, Nationalist Congress Party MP Datta Meghe and Maharashtra dairy development minister and Congressman Anees Ahmed shared a platform during a national seminar organized here and concluded that Jatropha could go a long way in bailing out Vidarbha’s farmers.

Credited with bringing about a revolution of sorts by turning endless tracts of wastelands in his state into oilfields (Jatropha seeds are used to produce bio-diesel), Raman Singh said Vidarbha could emulate Chhattishgarh and take to Jatropha plantation to ensure alternative livelihood for its cash-strapped farmers.

“The best part is that the plant can be grown in waste, fellow lands along with a mix of fruits, medicinal plants and bamboo and has enormous scope to provide income source to farmers,” Raman Singh said.

He also took the opportunity to call for a national policy on use and promotion of bio-diesel. “The country is spending over Rs.2.5lakh crore on import of petroleum products. Even developed countries like the US are shifting to production of bio-diesel from edible and non edible oilseeds. It’s high time India also took the plunge,” he said.

“Chhattishgarh is promoting Jatropha on a large scale. This year we plan to plant 18crore saplings. If more states join us, we can surely cut the country’s huge oil imports bill and also provide much needed help to our farmers and create lakhs of jobs,” he said.

The seminar, in which hundreds of farmers and rural activists participated, was organized by Vidarbha Vikash Parishad, a non-political forum recently started by Meghefor economic development in the region. It has already launched several projects to provide supplementary income to farmers.

On behalf of the state government, Ahmed lauded the efforts of Meghe and his parishad in taking up projects to bring succor to the distressed farmers of Vidarbha. He He agreed with Gadkari that it was time politicians set aside their party affiliations and join hands to think of ways to bring smiles back to farmers’ faces.