Farmers are getting additional income by selling the stubble/ biomass for conversion into torrefied/ non-torrefied biomass pellets
The Union Power Secretary recently chaired the second meeting of the Steering Committee for SAMARTH i.e. National Mission on Use of Biomass in coal-based thermal power plants. The meeting was organised to assess the status of Biomass utilisation in Thermal Power Plants in the country; SAMARTH (Sustainable Agrarian Mission on use of Agro Residue in Thermal Power Plants).
The agro-residue/ biomass earlier considered as a waste product has now begun to produce zero-carbon electricity for the citizens of the country. In turn, farmers are getting additional income by selling the stubble/ biomass for conversion into torrefied/ non-torrefied biomass pellets. For overall monitoring of the Mission and to facilitate the Mission on inter-ministerial issues/constraints, a Steering Committee under the chairmanship of Secretary, Ministry of Power (MoP) has been constituted.
Till date, approximately 59,000 metric tonnes (MT) of biomass has been cofired in thermal power plants in the country, while tenders for 12 million metric tonnes (MMT) are at different stages of process for short term & long term duration. Out of this, the biomass co-fired in the NCR region stands at 21000 MT and tenders floated in the region are about 5.50 MMT. Contracts have already been awarded for more than 11 lakh MT of biomass pellets.
Under the National Mission on Use of Biomass in Thermal Power Plants, advertisement, awareness campaigns and training activities are actively being pursued. Hoardings in public places and advertisements in popular newspapers in the northern states of Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh have already started. More advertisement campaigns are planned in 2022 especially in the months leading up to the paddy harvesting season.
Continuing with the market development efforts and encouraging budding entrepreneurs, the National Mission has conducted two farmers’ training and awareness programmes held at Faridabad, Haryana and Nangal, Punjab recently. Both programmes witnessed active participation by the farmers wherein the farmers were sensitised on the negative impact of crop residue burning on the soil productivity and avenues to supplement their income by participating in the value chain of biomass co-firing in TPPs. Another two programmes were held at NPTI Badarpur and NPTI Nagpur for pellet manufactures.
Pellet vendors were apprised of the latest technologies in the palletisation process and the issues and challenges faced by them in venturing into this relatively new field were gathered and assessed. The Mission has been actively pursuing the issues raised by vendors in the Executive and Steering committee meetings held with the government across Ministries and such programmes will be continued in future. The proposed website of the Mission was reviewed and would be launched shortly with a new logo for SAMARTH.
