With its pilot project at Jalgaon in Maharashtra showing good results, irrigation solutions provider Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd is now planning to commercially enter the green energy sector and offer its expertise to food processing and other companies to make them use solid bio-waste for power generation.

The Rs 4,000-crore, BSE-listed company's pilot project generates 1.7 MW of power using bio-waste from its food processing plant and runs the latter as well, thus making a re-cyclical production possible.

The food processing plant daily produces an average of 600 tonnes of solid, perishable waste including mango and banana peel and pulp, and the company also obtains sugarcane waste for seasonal sustainability, Mr Atul Jain, Director-Marketing, told Business Line after inaugurating the Group's 22nd manufacturing plant at Sihor here today.

The Jalgaon plant, he said, is biogas-based as the solid waste produces methane and releases carbon dioxide while reverting organic manure to the soil, thus enhancing its fertility.

With research and development in progress, the large-scale commercial use of the Indo-German technology of the Jalgaon plant is expected to bring down the per-megawatt cost of power production, he said.

In the first phase of manufacturing micro-irrigation equipment and pipes, the Group has invested Rs 25 crore at the Sihor plant, out of the planned Rs 100 crore. This is the company's fourth plant in India in the micro-irrigation equipment space.

Jain Irrigation, which acquired an Israeli and three US companies for $100 million in the irrigation and food processing space, is investing nearly Rs 300-400 crore a year on expansion and new projects in different verticals, including solar energy, Mr Jain said.

Focused mainly in Maharashtra, the four southern States and now in Gujarat, Jain Irrigation's next plant will be in north India, he said, but declined to give details.

The Group, engaged in organic farming in 2,000 acres in Maharashtra and 1,200 acres in Tamil Nadu, including R&D activities, is now planning to micro-irrigate two lakh acres in four districts of Maharashtra, benefiting nearly six lakh farmers, this summer.

“A large number of farmers have already booked with us to obtain micro-irrigation systems.”

So far, the company has provided irrigation solutions to nearly six million acres across western and southern States where drip and sprinkler irrigation systems have been successfully used.

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