Agrovision Report Final Artwork CONVERT pdf

Round Table of
Policymakers
on Bio Energy
Round table of Policy Makers on Bio Energy was organized
as a part of Agrovision 2012 comprising of over 25 experts
from different parts of India. Mr. Ravi Boratkar welcomed the
participants. Mr. Nitin Gadkari, who has been aggressively
promoting Bio energy, introduced the subject to the
participants of the Round table. Agriculture minister of
Chhattisgarh, Mr. Chandrasekhar Sahu, highlighted his
state’s efforts for Bio Energy development. Former union
minister of state for Rural Development, Mr. M. K. Anna Patil,
steered the discussion. Executive Chairman of the Karnataka
Bio Fuel Development Board, Mr. Y. B. Ramakrishna, and
Senior consultant of Alternate and Renewable energy, Mr. Jai
Uppal were the lead speakers and Mr. Divakar Rao, member
of the Vision Group on Biotechnology of Karnataka
government moderated the discussion.
Highlighting the issue as the one related to country’s future,
Mr. Nitin Gadkari stressed the need to form a strong lobby for
promoting alternative energy due to shortcomings in the
related policies. He said that diesel required for a village
should be produced in the village itself and elaborated on the
experiments done in this direction by the Purti Group.
Mr. Chandrasekhar Sahu explained the various steps taken
by his state government for promotion of bio fuels and bio
energy. He said that his government would announce a
separate agriculture budget before the general budget this
year. Describing 100 to 120 million hectares of land in the
country as waste land Mr. Y.B. Ramakrishna suggested that
the same should be used for bio energy plantation. He said
that India had well developed conversion technologies and
pointed to the question of deploying and scaling up these
technologies for taking them to every single village. He felt
that the major obstacle in promotion of bio energy was
disconnection between policy makers in Delhi and ground
level requirements. He also pointed that the two high level
committees set by the union government for implementation
of bio energy, had not met at all for long time.
The round table turned out to be an excellent platform where
experts from various fields shared their experience and
expertise. Mr. M. K. Anna Patil summed up the discussion.
During the concluding note it was agreed by all, that the
recommendations emerging out of the discussion should
form the charter of demands and shall be submitted to the
higher decision making government authority.
Key topics discussed:
Bio fuels : I Non-edible oil based bio-diesel- issues related to feed-stock I Policy support required I Marketing issues I Sugar
industry/distillery perspective I 2nd generation bio-ethanol I Issues in adopting Bio fuels in modern transport vehicles I Oil
marketing company perspectives
Other Bio-energy sources : I Bio-methanation & bio-gasification I Municipal solid wastes & other industrial wastes