Rotary Club Of Bombay

'Empower Women to Plant Biofuel Trees, and then see the Difference'

Environmental scientist Dr. Emmanuel D'Silva, formerly with the World Bank, speaking at the last meeting on 'Environmental management'

Environmental scientist Dr. Emmanuel D'Silva, who served for 15 years as Staff Economist with the World Bank, has appealed to Rotary Clubs to adopt a plan of action that would help make a huge difference to the world and, apart from providing livelihood to the poor, also help in reducing carbon emissions and global warming.

Speaking at the last meeting on "Environmental management", he said "biofuel" trees were a potent weapon in the battle against the abject poverty witnessed among people living on the degraded land in deserts and in arid areas. If women were given the lead in this gigantic enterprise, the results would be astonishing.

His own experience in Adilabad district of Andhra Pradesh, as also that of Nobel laureate Mohammed Yunus of the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, had shown that women were more trustworthy than men as business persons and far more reliable. Working with poor rural women had been a real eye-opener for him.

Dr. D'Silva, who graduated from Elphinstone College in Bombay, did his Master's in International Agriculture and Rural Development from Cornell University, USA, and obtained his Ph.D. in Environmental Science from Victoria University, New Zealand.

While working with the World Bank, he was involved with subjects like the environment, agriculture, rural development and forestry in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

At present he is a visiting scientist at the International Centre for Research in Semi-Arid Tropics, serving as a joint leader on a water and energy pilot project in India and West Africa.

Dr. D'Silva proposed a threepronged plan of action for Rotary Clubs that would comprise the following elements: "biofuel" trees, vermiculture and the use of CFL lamps.

He said his work on .biofuel. trees had led him to conclude that these could support the livelihood of the rural poor and also help produce seeds from which oil could be extracted for use in several activities.

Similarly, vermiculture, which was successful in villages, could be adopted in urban agglomerates and become an important source of organic matter for trees; it could also help recycle waste in cities.

'The biofuel revolution in Adilabad can help change the world'

Fielding the questions. Dr. Emmanuel D'Silva, the guest speaker at the last meeting, answers members. queries

Finally, by assisting in the shift from incandescent lamps to fluorescent lamps, Rotary Clubs could help reduce energy demands and mitigate climate change.

Starting with "biofuels", Dr. D'Silva said there were 300 species of tropical trees that produced seeds which yielded oil. But even experts knew only about three or four of these.

Even fewer people were aware of the fact that "biofuel" oil could help produce electricity, pump groundwater and even run cars and buses.

The three most popular "biofuel" seeds were neem, jatropha and pongamia pinaca (the latter known in India as karanji). Others, such as rubber seeds and seeds of teak, sal and so on, also yielded oil but their economics varied from region to region.

As part of a strategy, he planted "biofuel" trees only in poor, degraded areas. India had about 100 to 130 million hectares of degraded land. If just one million hectares was planted with .biofuel. trees, it would help produce one million tonnes of oil.

Such tree plantation could be included as part of watershed management, as part of afforestation plans or any other government programme aimed at providing livelihood to the poor and improving the environment. "It also happens to provide income and enhance employment in rural areas".

He had done a lot of work in Adilabad, the northernmost district of Andhra Pradesh, which was selected for him by the government because over 50% of the people lived below the poverty line. There were many indigenous tribes and the area was rich in forest, but much of the forest had been degraded over the years.

But the most important factor behind the choice was the fact that Andhra had the largest number of women's self-help groups in India . 500,000 out of a million all over the country.

These 500,000 groups had mobilised five million women and they had a savings and asset base of Rs. 1,000 crores.

"You can imagine what you can do by partnering with these women. That.s why I happen to do most of my work with women. I also happen to believe that they are better in business than men, but that.s my personal opinion."

Dr. D'Silva then turned briefly to Niger, where he had worked as an adviser. Three years ago, it was the world.s poorest country. Now, it had gone up one notch, leaving the tag of poorest country for Ethiopia. Niger had a GDP of $210, one-third that of India, and two-thirds of the country was desert, with no oil or any other resources.

On his first visit he found numerous neem trees but the people did not know about its uses. He told them that neem oil had many uses in India, for example, in the production of toothpastes, medicines and pesticides; he then taught them to use it as a "biofuel".

He also came across a "prolific" species of African jatropha which showed "fantastic growth"and yielded seeds within a year (interestingly, the seed originated in Central America).

Turning to pongamia, available in plenty in India, Dr. D'Silva said most of his work in Adilabad centred on this species which yielded seeds only after five years. Therefore, farmers were advised to plant them in rows, alternating with jowar. The seeds of this tree yielded oil which was used to produce electricity.

In a village called Chalbari, women entrepreneurs were encouraged to use off-the-shelf technology (a 7.5 KVa Kirloskar generator) to produce electricity. The women cranked the engine themselves and worked from 7 to 9 pm every day to produce power.

Dr. D'Silva said the people of the village were so convinced of the technique of producing electricity from pongamia, that they had planted 35,000 trees.

The oil could also be used to pump up groundwater. This had tremendous potential in villages without drinking water and in countries with groundwater but no means of pumping it up (in Niger, neem oil was used to pump up groundwater).

Women in Kishtapur village in Adilabad district were so enamoured of the electricity generating technique and its use for pumping up groundwater, that they had taken upon themselves the task of running the entire system.

This water was used for irrigation, complete with a meter to display exactly how much water had flowed into fields. Farmers paid an advance of Rs. 1,000 and, as they drew water, a predetermined sum was deducted from their prepaid accounts.

"But the most exciting possibility is the use of "biofuel" for transport. I had advised a company just outside Hyderabad which became the first in India to produce "biodiesel". Actually, I wanted to go up the value-chain. Producing electricity, pumping water at the village level and so on are all right, but it is also important to find a market for all the trees planted and the seeds collected.

"So I got a company in the private sector involved. And, I am happy to tell you, this company is already producing 10,000 tonnes of oil a year, enough to run 3,000 buses in Hyderabad city. This oil can also be used to run a Mercedes Benz...

"We tested the first bus with "biodiesel" in Hyderabad. It was enormously successful and the government is interested in taking it forward. The bus is run on B20, that is, 20% 'biodiesel' and 80% conventional diesel".

But was that all? Was the cycle complete? No, said Dr. D'Silva. The seeds of pongamia yielded 25% oil, jatropha 35% and neem gave 40% oil. As for the residue, it had turned out to be a very good substitute for chemical fertilisers.

The NPK (nitrogen, potassium, sulphur) value of pongamia oilcakes was tested for cotton, maize and soybeans. What emerged was a new idea, that of organic farming; farmers were convinced of the benefit to their cotton crop - and they were happy that they could put all their compost material back into the fields.

To top it all, Dr. D'Silva's team arranged a tie-up with a Dutch group which gave the farmers a 30% premium - a 10% freight rate premium, 10% fair waste premium and 10% for non-pesticide use.

(As an aside, Dr. D'Silva said that 90% of the tillers who had committed suicide in Maharashtra were cotton farmers . and a large percentage of their input costs happened to be pesticides and other chemicals. Perhaps the use of pongamia oilcakes was a solution to their ills.)

Turning to the second part of his three-pronged plan of action for Rotary Clubs, he said the Municipal Corporation of Greater Bombay spent over Rs. 1 crore per day (or Rs. 150 per kg) on handling garbage. It employed 35,000 people to handle 8,000 tonnes of garbage generated daily, 43% of which was biodegradable.

Was this the best use of citizen'. money? Could something be done about it? Yes, said Dr. D'Silva, the answer was very clear - vermiculture. This was a very old technology and had been used in India for hundreds of years, but since abandoned.

As an experiment, he had created a vermi-compost pit in the housing society at Mahim where he lived. About 1.50 tonnes of garbage was recycled every two months. It yielded organic compost for the trees and also had an impact on climate change.

Taking the experiment to Adilabad district, he chose a village with 127 households and some "very enterprising" women. They built 21 vermi-compost pits and recycled 350 tonnes of garbage, yielding 210 tonnes of compost with a market value of Rs. 7.30 lakhs in a year.

An investment of a mere Rs. 1,000 gave a woman an annual income of about Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 12,000. (Moreover, calculating the .emission reductions., since it was a chemical fertiliser that was being replaced, it was found to be 13 tonnes of carbon dioxide.)

"This is a livelihood issue which has an impact on the environment; and this is something you can do to get women into business.

A rupee spent on emission reduction generates an income of Rs. 30, says Dr. Emmanuel D'Silva

President Dr. Rumi Jehangir thanks the guest speaker, Dr. Emmanuel D'Silva, and presents a memento to him

"I started off with landless women, women with no resources who were dependent on others. I wondered, like our friend in Bangladesh, Mohammed Yunus, what can we do to make this work for people without assets?

"He believed that women who are dependent can be made into business women. I said, let.s give it a try. And you can see two of these women (seen on a slide presented by the guest speaker) who had a go at it and sell it (the compost) to people with land."

Dr. D'Silva then turned to the last point in his plan of action for Rotary Clubs, that is, the use of fluorescent lamps in place of incandescent lamps.

Recently, after consultations with a women.s group in Kishtapur, all 282 light bulbs in the village were replaced. A subsequent study showed that this reduced the energy requirement by 50% and saved 35 MW/ hours of electricity worth Rs. 87,000. The carbon emission reduction was to the tune of 26 tonnes.

Some individuals/companies that purchased "carbon credits" were then approached; they paid Rs. 10,400 to .buy. these energy reductions. M/s Philips, when asked, agreed to offer a hefty discount on the CFL bulbs; ultimately, each bulb cost the villagers a mere Rs. 10 - the price of a normal light bulb.

Dr. D'Silva extrapolated this data for the rest of India. Considering that only 50% of India.s 650,000 villages had electricity, it was determined that the use of CFL bulbs would enable the saving of 1,000 Giga/watt hours of electricity and reduce carbon dioxide emission by 700,000 tonnes.

Some individuals/companies that purchased .carbon credits. were then approached; they paid Rs. 10,400 to .buy. these energy reductions. M/s Philips, when asked, agreed to offer a hefty discount on the CFL bulbs; ultimately, each bulb cost the villagers a mere Rs. 10 - the price of a normal light bulb.

"Which brings me back to the initial idea which I picked up from one of Bill Clinton's books... He said, if every American household changed its light bulbs, it would be equivalent to taking out 80 coalfired power plants in the USA.

"So next time if anyone asks you, can a light-bulb change make a difference, I hope you say, yes."

The guest speaker claimed to have sold carbon emission reductions equivalent to 3,000 tonnes from 47 villages; a sum of Rs. 7.5 lakhs had gone to those villages; 6,000 families had benefited; and 140,000 trees had been planted. This was done mainly in partnership with the local government.

Village Chalbari had sold 900 tonnes which gave it Rs. 2 lakhs merely for planting trees (about 30,000). The village of Powerguda also sold its reductions which were purchased by, among others, the World Bank, by individuals, companies, NGOs, Indians, Americans and so on.

The Rotary Club of Sion was one of the first in Bombay to purchase reductions. It gave a cheque for Rs. 33,000 which went directly to one village. "I hope that this Rotary Club, which is one of the largest in Asia, will be more than generous...."

What had the women of Powerguda done with the money? They had ploughed it back. This year they had used the money for a nursery of 50,000 plants.

"I have calculated that every rupee invested in emission reduction generates an income of Rs. 30. This income comes mainly from the trees that produce seeds which yield oil."

Dr. D'Silva suggested a "modest budget of Rs. 1.20 lakhs" for the Rotary Club of Bombay, Rs. 60,000 to be set aside for carbon offset, Rs. 40,000 for CFL bulbs and the rest for vermi-composting.

In his estimate, each member of the Club generated at least ten tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, which was ten times that of an average Indian.

If members were serious about offsetting this, it would cost each one of them about Rs. 4,000.

"If each one in this room would take responsibility for his or her own pollution and if you accept the principle of polluter pays, then within no time the money required, Rs. 1.20 lakhs, would be raised. And you would be making this world a better place.

"I have already identified a village, Sanjeev Nagar, where this money can be used; about 12,000 trees have just been planted... and the money I mentioned, Rs. 60,000 out of Rs. 1.20 lakhs, will go to them and ensure that the trees they have planted will be protected.

"This is one of the biggest problems in India. Planting a tree is not a problem, making sure the tree survives is. We have all these van mahotsavas where a million trees are planted... go back the next year and 90% of them are dead and gone."

As for CFL bulbs, Navjeevan village near Murbad (in Maharashtra), which was just two hours from Bombay, needed 300 of them. Perhaps the Club could help it to make the change.

Finally, Dr. D'Silva showed a composite slide of enterprising women in Adilabad district and in Niger and said, "Take a hard look at these women. These are small oil-producers who happen to be women. Perhaps in the future, this will be the future face of OPEC".

Answering questions, he told Shanta Chatterji that the government had allowed the plantation of "biofuel" trees, especially pongamia, under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

In Adilabad district the State government had a scheme to plant one lakh acres. Three million trees had already been planted, but the problem was that there was no quality control. He had no idea about the quality of the seeds or where they came from.

He agreed that the income from carbon reduction was extremely low (hardly 5%). But the real money would come from the oil extracted and the oilcakes sold.

"Now, of course, there are some companies that want to do it on a commercial scale, but their idea probably would be to use the villagers as wage labour. Nothing wrong with that, except that personally I feel (they would be better off if we) make them partners."

Dr. Nayna Dastur pointed out that in Brazil and other parts of the world a debate was raging on the use of sugarcane and maize for the production of ethanol (to be mixed and used as fuel). Would this not affect the agricultural industry and lead to high food costs?

In reply, Dr. D'.Silva said that a debate on the use of land for agriculture versus its use for "biofuel" was on in the USA where foodcrops, soybeans and maize were used for ethanol. But the point to be noted was that most of these foodcrops were used for cattle in the first place.

Cornell University had found in the course of a study that the value added on producing "biofuel" from corn was barely 8%.

"So much energy is used to plant the seeds, to harvest it, take it to the market and then to process it further.

"But from the very beginning I have avoided using good agricultural land for growing .biofuel. crops. You may have noticed that my emphasis has been on degraded land. The pictures you saw are not of land on which you can grow rice, sugarcane or maize. I always emphasise this . do not use your agricultural land for "biofuel" purposes.

"I also don't want all the land to be planted only with jatropha. In Adilabad we have a mixed tree species. When I refer to one hectare of pongamia, you can be sure that other trees are being grown on three hectares of land. Biodiversity is very important in our region," Dr. D'Silva concluded.

While Shernaz Vakil introduced the guest speaker, the vote of thanks was proposed by Shanta Chatterji.

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