Mangalore June 5: The fear about the success of the biofuel mission launched a year ago in the district has, now, come true. The officials who were heading the mission under various departments have almost been convinced that maintaining a chapter of biofuels in Dakshina Kannada will not be a 'working model'.

The Central government had planned to grow Jatropha in a total of 130 million hectares of land (which had been considered as barren), as a step towards minimising the future crisis of petroleum resources. On the lines of the vision of the Centre, the State government too launched a package to boost the biofuel sector, which was assigned to the departments of Agriculture, Forest and Social Forestry.

In addition to Jatropha Curcas, the State added Indian Beech (honge in local usage) to the list and set targets to various districts. The Department of Agriculture had a target of distributing 50,000 jatropha and 25,000 honge saplings with a total budget of Rs 3 lakh. About 10,000 jatropha plants were to be distributed in each taluk. Each sapling was available with a subsidised rate of Rs 4.

On the other hand, the Department of Social Forestry had initiated into the venture about two years back, but people did not find any difference when they got plants of biofuels apart from the usual saplings. The district had as many as 18,000 jatropha and 41,000 honge plants in the 6 nurseries of Social Forestry.

As per the statistics available in the Department of Agriculture,  total of 47,250 jatropha saplings and 22,750 Indian Beech saplings have been distributed across the district in 2006-07. Mangalore taluk has got 7,500 jatropha and honge saplings each, Bantwal has got 10,000 jatropha and 5,000 honge, Bethangady 14,250 jatropha and 1,250 honge, Puttur 7,500 jatropha and honge each and Sullia has got 8,000 jatropha and 7,000 honge saplings.

Though the target achieved appears almost satisfactory, no officials concerned have a clear picture as how far the scheme has been working in the district. In other words, there has not been a concrete survey or 'follow up' across the district to understand the progress of the programme.  However, District Social Forestry Department Superintendent Nalini said the department produced saplings every year after conducting a 'demand survey' in various taluks.

'DK- not suitable'

According to the Joint Director of Agriculture Department A Padmaiah Naik, the feasibility of growing bio-fuel plants in Dakshina Kannada is less, compared to some other districts of northern Karnataka. “When there are no clear-cut ideas on demand and marketing, people do not venture into a new crop, especially in a commercial way. There are abundant challenges for the production and marketing of biofuel,” he said.

The district is such a region that one cannot devote a larger area to a strange crop unlike the plain regions of the northern part. There is a lack of orientation and security for those who are willing to look into the issue, Mr Naik stated.

DHNS