The Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC) has formally initiated work on projects aimed at to produce bio-fuel products, enabling the country to save huge precious foreign exchange spent on fuel imports.
The PARC has been working on three projects in Balochistan area to plant three types of saplings that have potential to produce bulk quantity of bio-fuel, Chairman PARC, Dr Zafar Altaf told APP in an interview here.
"We have identified three salt tolerant plants including Jatropha, Salicornia and Castor oil plant, which could grow in salt marshes on sea beaches and could even sustain for five years without water," he remarked.
He said that research work for Jatropha plantation has already been completed and the council would soon order for importing seeds of the plant to be cultivated in coastal areas of Balochistan province.
He was of the view that Jtropha plant has capacity to produce 1100 liter oil per hector where as Salicornia could produce 1600 liters per hector and Castor plant as many as 1800 liter per hector.
He said that the Salcornia plant would not only produce bio-fuel while its remains, which contain 41 percent proteins, could be utilised for feeding animals in the Balochistan province.
It may be recalled that Jatropha contains up to 40 percent oil while Castor plant contains 40-60 percent oil. With the plantation of these plants in coastal areas, the bio-fuel production would increase in the country and thereby lead to cut in imports resulting in saving of a sizeable amount utilised for oil imports, he remarked.
The PARC chairman was of the view that instead of short-term policies, the country was in need of developing long-term plans to help develop sustainable economy in the country.
He said that Pakistan has great potential to become self-sufficient in many fields and ensure sufficiency in agri-yield, however added that there was need for continuity in the policies to put the economy on sustainable track. PARC Chairman said that there was no cut in the councils budget from the federal government, instead, he added that the council was getting budget more than its demand.
The PARC Chairman also highlighted the need for switching towards organic farming to produce healthy agri-products besides saving billions of rupees, which the country has been utilising on import of fertilisers. "This year, the government provided Rs 27 billion subsidy on fertilisers and we can save the amount utilised in fertiliser purchase by using organic fertiliser," he added.
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