Govt to promote cactus plantations in low-irrigation areas to help treat degraded land: Giriraj Singh

New Delhi: The government is looking at promoting cactus plantations in low-irrigation areas to rejuvenate degraded land, enhance livelihood as well as explore the scope of biofuel production, Union Minister Giriraj Singh has said.

The minister for rural development also told that a pilot project for planting spineless cactus is being implemented at present around the ISKCON cowshed in Rajasthan's Hingonia, where the biomass of cacti will be used to produce biogas at a nearby Compressed Bio Gas (CBG) plant.

India has around 30 per cent of its geographical area under the category of degraded land, according to government data.

"We have been focusing on treating degraded land, and cactus is a plant that can grow with very little irrigation. It is also known for sinking carbon in the ground, and is an energy plant which can be used for producing methane...," he said.

"We are, therefore, planning to introduce cactus plantations in such areas, a pilot project for which has been started (in Hingonia) near Jaipur," Singh said.

The Department of Land Resources under the Ministry of Rural Development has been mandated to restore degraded lands through its Watershed Development Component of the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (WDC-PMKSY).

Officials in the ministry said cactus plantation on degraded land is being explored for its usage for biofuel, food, fodder and bio-fertiliser production.

Institutes such as the Central Arid Zone Research Institute (CAZRI), Jodhpur (Rajasthan), IGFRI Jhansi (Uttar Pradesh) and the National Institute of Abiotic Stress Management, Malegaon (Maharashtra) have done some work on growing cactus. The yield obtained was around 12 to 15 tonnes per hectare, they said.

It has been suggested that systematic research should be undertaken to maximize production of the best varieties of cacti, especially for its use as biofuel, the officials said and added that the CBG plant set up in Hingonia by the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), hence made it the ideal site for the pilot project.

They said around 67 varieties of spineless cactus have already been introduced in India from countries such as Italy, Chile and Mexico, but it is mostly being grown for fodder purposes.

Sources said the ministry is in discussions with nine states for cactus plantations -- Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Bihar and Odisha.

Inputs from PTI