The growth of ethanol sector has been tremendous which has set a sort of example for the world. In last 9 years, sugar sector has been self-sufficient with more than 99.9% payment to farmers for previous season. Now, ethanol will support maize farmers in increasing their income and bringing growth with stability on the lines of sugarcane farmers. Investment of thousands of crores have come creating thousands of jobs in rural sector which has generated multiplier effect on Indian economy.
Piyush Goyal, Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Textiles and Commerce and Industry while addressing one day seminar on ‘National Seminar on Maize to Ethanol’ organised by Department of Food and Public Distribution, disclosed this. He highlighted that environment friendly fuel like ethanol has been on the top priority list of Prime Minister which has resulted in more than doubling of ethanol blending in just 2 years and target of 20% ethanol blending has also been preponed from 2030 to 2025. Timely planning, industry friendly policies and transparent approach of the Government of India with collaboration of industry has made these achievements a reality, he said. He stressed on the need for synchronous efforts of Central Government, States, Research Institutes, OMCs and Distilleries to achieve the target of 20% ethanol blending while keeping interests of the farmers always on top priority. The Union Minister highlighted that India has transformed in accomplishing bigger goals in shorter time to be the world leader. Target of E 20 was preponed from 2030 to 2025 so that India can have clean fuel with propagating farmers’ interests. The Secretary, Agriculture, Manoj Ahuja also expressed the need to have more targeted and region specific approach in promoting cultivation of maize in the country. Secretary, Petroleum supported the idea and highlighted the work of OMCs in collaborating with industry which resulted in achieving 10% blending target last year and moving in right direction to achieve the 20% blending target in time. Secretary, F &PD spelt out the need for assured procurement of maize at MSP and evolving enabling ecosystem for the whole sector as basic necessity to achieve the target for grain-based distilleries. In India, distilleries generally produce ethanol from molasses which is the by-product of sugar. However, only sugarcane route is not sufficient to achieve the 20% blending target, therefore, ethanol from food-grains such as maize, damaged food grains (DFG) and rice available with FCI has also been allowed. To achieve the target of 20% ethanol blending with petrol by 2025, about 1016 crore liters of ethanol would be required and about 334 crore liters of ethanol would be required for other uses. For this, about 1700 crore liters of ethanol producing capacity would be required considering plant operates at 80% efficiency.
It is estimated that to achieve the target of 20% blending, the requirement of food-grains for ethanol production would be around 165 LMT. Globally, maize is a primary feedstock for production of ethanol as it consumes less water and is economical, however, in India, the use of maize as a feedstock for ethanol production is yet to gain momentum. Currently, grain-based distilleries are producing ethanol from food-grains by using either Damaged Food Grains (DFG) like broken rice or using FCI rice, there is hardly any production of ethanol from maize by grain based distilleries in India. Use of multiple feed-stocks for ethanol production will ensure feedstock security thereby not putting any stress on the availability of any single feedstock. Moreover, maize based ethanol is more economical and water efficient.
The production of maize in the country is consistent. However, due to low demand of maize, farmers are not getting appropriate price for their produce. Production of ethanol from maize will increase the demand of maize and therefore will fetch a better price to farmers. At present, due to export demand, maize prices are high but generally, market price of maize remain below MSP leading to low cultivation area for the crop. Use of maize for ethanol production would assure better prices and consistent demand for maize leading to more cultivation of the crop which is lesser water consuming crop as compared to paddy.