Siblings help Indian farmers reduce CO2 emissions

Adarsha Shivakumar and Apoorva Rangan, a brother and sister team who live in California, spent their summers with their grandparents in a small village in India.

Quite a few of the villagers in this region grow tobacco for a living, as it is one of the few crops that can generate income. However, in order to process tobacco, the leaves of the plant must first be cured in barns. The farmers accomplish this by burning large quantities of firewood in kilns. This generates huge amounts of pollution. The farmers have little firewood on their small plots of land, so they turn to the agents who illegally sell them firewood by cutting down trees from the local Nagarahole National Park, a large and pristine wildlife sanctuary which is also a home to a large variety of wildlife, including Asian elephant and tiger.

As a result of what they witnessed, Adarsha and Apoorva launched Project Jatropha with the assistance of two collaborators in India: an organization that helps farmers and a plant biotechnology company that specializes in Jatropha curcas. This drought resistant plant, native to Central America, can grow in an arid environment and produces seeds that are about 34% oil that can be processed to create high grade fuel.

In the first stage of their project, they used the money that Adarsha won as a cash reward for winning a California state spelling bee championship. They used this money to buy 1,000 Jatropha seedlings and distributed these to five farmer leaders. To convince more farmers of the viability of this biofuel source, they took several farmers to experimental farms to see the plantings, to learn how to grow seedlings, and to see how to extract oil from the seeds.

The farmers were also given a sample of the oil to burn as fuel. The farmers liked what they saw. "Smoke emission is less compared to regular diesel," one said. "The exhaust smells pleasant. The pump ran smoothly and efficiently."

In the second stage of their project, more than 30 self-help group members have planted over 12,000 seedlings. After maturing, these seedlings are estimated to produce about 2,700 gallons of biofuel. Adarsha and Apoorva say that they will continue to spread the project throughout India and the world. They will not stop until they help all the people they can with the project.

Adarsha Shivakumar and Apoorva Rangan received first place (in the 14-16 age category) in Action for Nature's (AFN) 2009 International Young Eco-Hero Awards. This profile was re-published with permission from AFN.

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