Govt encouraging farmers to diversify from water intensive crops to more sustainable crops like maize for ethanol production: Minister
The Indian government is promoting maize cultivation for ethanol production to reduce reliance on water-intensive crops. Minister Suresh Gopi highlighted the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme’s economic and environmental benefits, including foreign exchange savings and CO₂ reduction. Additionally, ethanol production generates Dried Distillers Grains with Solubles (DDGS), supporting the poultry and cattle feed industry.
The government is encouraging farmers to enhance maize production to boost ethanol output, the minister stated.
“Government is encouraging farmers to diversify from water intensive crops like rice, sugarcane, etc. to more sustainable crops like maize for ethanol production. The “Roadmap for Ethanol Blending in India 2020-25” has also noted that technological advancements have made it possible for molasses-based distilleries with incineration boilers and grain-based distilleries to become zero liquid discharge (ZLD) units, resulting in negligible pollution,” said Suresh Gopi, Minister of State in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, while answering an unstarred question in the Rajya Sabha.
He also stated, “Government has been promoting blending of ethanol in petrol under the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme with multiple objectives including reducing import dependence, savings in foreign exchange, providing boost to domestic agriculture sector and for associated environment benefits. Since 2014-15, Ethanol blending in Petrol (EBP) Programme has resulted in expeditious payment to farmers of more than Rs.1,04,000 crore up to January 2025, besides approximate savings of more than Rs.1,20,000 crore of foreign exchange, net CO2 reduction of about 626 lakh metric tonne and crude oil substitution of more than 200 lakh metric tonnes. The National Policy on Biofuels promotes and encourages use of feedstocks such as corn, cassava, rotten potatoes, damaged food grains like broken rice, food grains unfit for human consumption, maize, sugarcane juice & molasses, agriculture residues (Rice straw, cotton stalk, corn cobs, sawdust, bagasse etc.). The extent of utilization of individual feedstock for ethanol production varies annually, influenced by factors such as availability, costs, economic feasibility, market demand, and policy incentives. Any diversion of sugarcane juice, its by-products, maize etc. for ethanol production is carefully calibrated in consultation with relevant stakeholders.”
The minister also emphasized that the government has implemented measures to support the poultry industry and stated, “Around 60% of the country’s maize is utilized by the poultry industry. To ensure steady availability and affordability of poultry feed, diversification in feed sources has been promoted. Additionally, farmers are encouraged to incorporate alternative feed ingredients like sorghum, broken rice, and bajra (pearl millet) as poultry feed. Further, producing ethanol from grains like maize yields a valuable co-product known as Dried Distillers Grains with Solubles (DDGS), which is rich in protein and widely used as cattle and poultry feed.”
Source : ChiniMandi
