Hassan college shows the way, villagers take to biofuel
Ramesh from Huvinahalli in Channarayapatna, has planted bio-fuel trees on his 120 acres of land and uses the oil to run his tractor.
Hassan: Trees that yeild seeds for making of bio-fuel are getting popular with farmers in Hassan and in the villages of Mysuru, Mandya, Karkala, Bengaluru rural and Kushalnagar thanks to the efforts of the College of Agriculture, Hassan.
Oil extracted from the seeds of Hippe, Neem, Jatropha, Honge, Amoora, Simarouba and Surahonne trees are used to make bio-fuel, according to head of the college's bio-fuel project, Balakrishna Gowda. “The fallen leaves and seeds of the trees help increase soil fertility in fields. The oil extracted can be blended with petrol or diesel to run vehicles and also used to light lamps,” he explains.
“Farmers have accepted the trees now and grow them in bunds, borders of the fields and in open spaces. As per our evaluation about 75 per cent of the distributed seeds survive,” he adds. But getting the farmers to accept the trees was not easy, he admits. “When the college first took steps to popularise bio-fuel trees the farmers were sceptical until a few success stories started to emerge,” he explains. A farmer, Ramesh of Huvinahalli in Channarayapatna of Hassan has now planted bio-fuel trees on his 120-acres and uses the oil to run his tractor. Even an autorickshaw driver, Lohithakshaiah extracts oil from the bio-fuel seeds and uses it run his autorickshaw. Besides, he uses the cake for gobar gas units and for his fields, according to assistant prof, Raghu.