During the 22 day war with Pakistan Lal Bahadur Shastri gave the slogan-‘Jai jawan,Jai kisan’ (Hail the soldier,Hail the farmer) and Atal Bihari Vajpayee further added to it by incorporating Jai Vigyan.And if both of these kisan and vigyan join hands ,then miracle happens.India is mainly an agricultural country ,in which the major contribution to economic growth is by agriculture only. But in spite of that farmers are facing acute poverty.This is because only 25-40% of their crops fetches money whereas the rest of 60-75% of his produce which is agriculture residues is simply junked. Obviously no industry can survive on such low productivity.Apart from the government’s low support prices ,it is wastage that has made the farming non-renumerative.India generates 600 million tonnes of agriculture residues every year. If farmers are able to earn money through this,rather than burning it as a way of waste disposal ,it will greatly boost up the prospects.Any marginal farm can produce agricultural residues even if the main crop fails.And iof these residues are are used to produce energy ,a farmer can earn an average income of Rs 2000-Rs 4000 per acre from residues alone. This income can give him benefits even in the distress sale of his crops.

Three types of energy can be produced from these residues-Liquid fuels such as ethanol or pyrolysis oil;gaseous fuels like biogas and electricity.

Ethanol, which can be used as transport fuel can be produced by lignocellulosic conversion of residues.Extensive R&D is being done the world over to optimize this technology.Afew large plants in Canada,Japan and US have already been set up with this technology.Theoretically,residues in India can produce 156 billion litres of ethanol ,which can take care of 42% of India ‘s oil demand for the year 2012.

Pyrolysis oil is produced by rapid combustion of biomass ,which is rapidly condensed so that oil is yielded which is nearly equivalent to diesel.Around 20% 0f charcoal is produced as a byproduct which can be used as cooking fuel in rural households.Nevertheless,R&Dis still neededto make this technology suitable for use in internal combustion engines.India can produce about 400 billion kg of pyrolysis oil from its agricultural residues which is equivalent to 80% of India’s total oil demandfor 2012.

Agricultural residues can also contribute in the production of 80,000 MW power all year round through biomas based power plants.The plants could be either small scale (500MW) running on producer gas fronm agricultural residues or medium scale (10-20 MW) running on direct combustion of these residues.

A part of these agricultural residues can also be used via the biodigestor route to produce fertilizer for crops and methane gas to run rural transport ,irrigation pump sets or kitchens.Energy from agricultural residues in India can generate 30 million jobs in riral areas.When farmers are forgotten,long term sustainability of the country is threatened .When farmers produce both food and fuel ,their utility becomes manifold.65% OF India’s population depends on farming for its livelihood.If energy from agriculture emerge as an area of interest ,India can emerge as a high tech farming community.