The Gujarat government, Suzuki Motor Corporation and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) plan to sign an agreement to set up compressed biogas (CBG) plants through the state’s cooperative dairies, with Japanese money and technical help. Ministers and a Japanese delegation discussed the proposal in Gandhinagar on September 23, according to DeshGujarat and IANS, via Punjab Kesari.
Finance Minister Kanu Desai, Cooperation Minister Jitu Vaghani and Minister of State for Revenue Sanjaysinh Mahida attended for the state. The Japanese side included representatives of Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Suzuki and JICA’s India office. Neither report gives a plant count, an investment figure or a date for signing.
What already exists in Banaskantha
The plan builds on a project Suzuki started with Banas Dairy and the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) three years ago. In September 2023 the three signed an agreement for four biogas plants in Banaskantha, at a cost of about Rs 230 crore, with a fuel station at each, Autocar Professional reported at the time.
The first of those opened in December 2025 at Banas Dairy’s Sanadar plant in Agthala. Suzuki’s own announcement, carried by MarketScreener, said it turns up to 100 tonnes of cow dung a day into about 1.5 tonnes of CBG, enough for roughly 850 CNG vehicles, and sells the leftover slurry as organic fertiliser. In January 2026 the partners agreed on another dung-based plant in the district, Indian Cooperative reported.
Suzuki has a plain commercial reason to back this. Maruti Suzuki sells most of India’s factory-fitted CNG cars, and purified biogas can run those cars. The company has since signed a similar agreement with a dairy in Assam.
What it means for dairy farmers
Gujarat has one of the densest cooperative dairy networks in the country, with district unions collecting milk twice a day from thousands of village societies. That same collection system can move dung. For a farmer with a few cattle, dung today goes into a manure pit or dries into cakes for fuel. A biogas plant turns it into something a dairy will pay for, and the fertiliser it returns can replace some chemical input on the farm.
The state’s pitch, as described in both reports, is to strengthen the cooperative sector and raise production of quality organic fertiliser alongside the gas. JICA’s involvement suggests concessional finance, which could make plants viable at unions much smaller than Banas.
Farmers and dairy boards should watch a few details once the MoU is public:
- The price paid for dung per kilogram, and whether it reaches the herd owner or stops at the village society.
- Which unions get plants first. Banaskantha already has the collection set-up; unions with more scattered herds will face higher haulage costs.
- Who buys the gas. A plant needs steady buyers, whether its own filling stations, city gas networks or oil companies.
Outlook
Both reports say the MoU is expected soon, without giving a date. The first test after that will be the finance: whether JICA lends to the state, to the dairies or through NDDB, and on what terms. When the Agthala plant completes its first year in December, its output will show whether the 1.5-tonne daily figure holds up in regular operation.
Sources: DeshGujarat, IANS via Punjab Kesari, Autocar Professional, Indian Cooperative
This report was compiled and written with AI assistance from publicly reported sources, and reviewed for accuracy.