The utilisation of renewable energy will have to be maximised in order to ensure adequate food supply for a rising population in the face of agricultural land and other resources decreasing at an alarming rate.

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research assistant director general (Post-harvest Engineering) Dr KK Singh said this at the start of a four-day national seminar on renewable energy sources organised by the Farm Machinery and Power Engineering Department of the College of Technology, GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology.

Addressing the gathering on the occasion, Singh said that day by day the level of power consumption is increasing around the world but the sources of energy have remained limited. “Agricultural land continues to shrink due to factors like growing population and industrialisation. In such a scenario there is need for devising new techniques for increasing use of solar power in addition to traditional sources of energy,” he said.

Presiding over the inaugural session of the seminar, the university vice chancellor Prof HS Dhami said that the per capita consumption of power in India is considerably less compared to many developed countries. However, there is need for more power due to the rising population of the nation. In order to meet the increasing demand for power the use of solar, wind, biomass, nuclear and geothermal energy sources as alternatives needs to be increased, he said.

Other speakers stressed that scientists, farmers, industrialists and policy makers will have to work together to form a long-term plan for maximising the use of renewable sources of energy. More focus needs to be laid on the utilisation of biogas plants, diesel and alcohol mix fuel and energy efficient farming equipment in the Terai and mountainous regions. Scientists attending the seminar pointed out that the per capita power consumption in India is about 900 kilowatt hour whereas it is more than 11,000 kilowatt hour in USA, 5513 kilowatt hour in Japan and about 1349 kilowatt hour in China.

India accounts about four per cent of the world’s crude oil consumption and two per cent of the world’s natural gas consumption. More than 50 scientists and researchers from 18 institutions are participating in the seminar here.