The Government of India is promoting the use of this oil as “Bio-Diesel”. GOGVIP realized that Jatropha can help get over the problem of quick depletion of reserves of mineral oils. Mr. Gulabrao Kale studied the prospects of plantation in the Ahmednagar district and under his guidance GOGVIP took to plantation under DPAP program of government. Initially, it was a very difficult task to make farmers ready for the Jatropha plantation. When interaction with 20-25 farmers was made, only 2-3 farmers got convinced for the plantation. Lack of literacy more so in terms of plantation of Jatropha was a big hindrance in the task. It was hard to convince about the futuristic benefits of the plant and the fact that it can produce bio-diesel, an equivalent of Diesel. But after untiring and continuous efforts more than 1000 farmers are working with GOGVIP for the Jatropha plantation now.

For this task, under the watershed development program, GOGVIP took an area of 1092 hectors for making CCT’S. Till date more than 20 lakh Jatropha plant have been planted in the entire target area of the five villages of Vankute, Dhoki, Dhotre, Dhavalpuri and Gajdipoor of the project. The villages are in the remote locations and that made connecting them with GOGVIP a difficult task.

Jatropha is a wild variety of castor. It does not require much rainfall and can be propagated easily without much care. It also promotes ecological balance in the arid landscape, and does not affect cattle grazing activities. All these factors worked in favour of Jatropha being an ideal plant for Ahmednagar which has been declared under the watershed programs of Government of India. The soil being poor and the underground water table being low, most of the cultivation depends on rainfall in this area. Jatropha not only acted as a boon to improve the ecological balance but also helped in raising the water level.

Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam has planted Jatropha sapling in Mughal Gardens of Rashtrapati Bhavan. To begin with 800 plants are being planted for educational purposes to promote the use of herbal plants for extracting oil from which bio diesel can be produced. This is being done in collaboration with G.B. Pant Agricultural University, Pantnagar and National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow. A demonstration of Agricultural implements being operated by bio-diesel was also made before the President. President of India  Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam always emphasizes on plantation of Jatropha curcas.