Silchar/Aizawl, Nov. 22: In what could turn out to be the much-needed boost for Mizoram?s tottering economy, the Zoramthanga government has finalised a deal with the Godrej group for commercial cultivation of oil-bearing plants in the state. In fact, the state agriculture minister H. Rammawi is confident that the key to the state?s self-sufficiency lies in jatropha, the plant that could transform Mizoram into a ?green oil field?.

A spokesman for the state industries directorate today said from Aizawl that a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was inked last month with Godrej Agrovet Pvt Ltd for commercial cultivation of red oil palm and jatropha.

Godrej will pump in Rs 250 crore in phases for cultivation of the two crops on fallow land. While jatropha will be grown on about one lakh hectares of land, red oil palm will be raised on at least 50,000 hectares spread all over the state.

?The reason why we opted for Godrej is that the group has experience of farming oil-bearing plants since 1989. In fact, Godrej Agrovet Pvt Ltd has already taken up the cultivation as well as marketing of these in several states in the country? the official said.

According to the terms of the MoU, Godrej will invest in machinery and other infrastructure and also look after the marketing of the products outside the state.

Besides Godrej Agrovet Pvt Ltd, Mizoram government has a memorandum of understanding with D1 Oils Company of UK for supply of jatropha seeds and marketing of jatropha diesel.

The emphasis being given to bio-diesel cultivation by both the state and the Union governments can be gauged from a meeting between the state agriculture minister and R.S. Kurien, director of National Oilseeds and Vegetable Development board, under the Union ministry of agriculture and cooperation, on Saturday. At the meeting, Rammawi had said he hoped jatropha plantations would transform Mizoram into a ?green oilfield?.

Kurien was in Aizawl to survey the state agriculture department?s initiatives in jatropha cultivation. He pointed out that Mizoram was the first northeastern state where the board has started bio-diesel projects. Six hundred quintals of jatropha seeds have been distributed to farmers in Mizoram during this year.

Incidentally, the state government is also wooing ITC to investing in bamboo chipping plants in Mizoram.