India's Ethanol Vision Needs To Court Sweet Sorghum To Fulfill Its E100 Dream

 

 

Through a recent decision, the government has opened the doors for pure ethanol to enter our petrol tanks. The newly amended Central Motor Vehicle Act 1989 allows for 100 per cent ethanol as a flexible fuel to be used in petrol cars.

 

But the question is, where is the ethanol coming from? American imports, or domestic distilling from grains like rice, maize, etc. or sugarcane? Despite the government trying to wean off sugarcane to safeguard sugar stocks, it may be forced to use all available resources to meet this ambitious target.

So how will this impact the sugar economy? Let’s recap. In the last couple of years, India has been chasing the ethanol dream at the cost of our sugar economy. The first instance is the unusual sugar price hike earlier this year, where it reached over Rs 70 in many parts of the country. Despite “record production” of sugarcane, Indians bled to pay for a vital food commodity like sugar.

 

Now, the government has claimed that ethanol production had nothing to do with this sugar price inflation. But many agriculture and industry experts disagree. The government also took a U-turn last week by banning sugar diversion for ethanol production, confirming a link between sugarcane, sugar and ethanol in our country.

The sugarcane-based ethanol industry, sugar mills and sugar exporters have been suffering too, because of the haphazard policy of the government. First, it gave huge subsidies to build sugarcane-based ethanol processing infrastructure across the country. Then, the purchase of sugarcane-based ethanol began. As a result, more and more sugarcane-based ethanol plants started mushrooming across the country. States like UP, where the sugarcane industry had been suffering from debt, quickly integrated ethanol production into their units.

 

Then came the crash, with sugar prices and stocks starting to reach a critical point. Despite being one of the world's largest sugar-producing countries, the government was forced to ban sugar exports from 2022 for extended periods, negatively impacting the global sugar economy. The shortages forced the government to bring out its New Sugar Control Order to restrict sugarcane to traditional khandsaris (sugar-producing units).

The damage to the sugar economy has been extensive. The steady rise in scarcity of water, farmers' outstanding dues, and pollution have not even been factored in. India could lean more on grain-based ethanol, but that would deplete our food and energy reserves even faster, and could be considered unwise, especially as we are 100th out of 122 on the recent Global Hunger Index.

 

Our water resources — surface and ground — are at a critical level, and with climate change phenomena like El Niño, water cropping patterns are expected to be disrupted unpredictably. Whereas American ethanol is antithetical to PM Modi’s vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat and extremely bad for our economy.

So is there another agro-based alternative India could explore for her growing ethanol needs? The answer may be in a millet; Specifically, sweet sorghum.

 

Millet-Based Ethanol?

Millet-based ethanol is not some far-fetched dream. Even now, some grain-based ethanol production units are using millets for ethanol production. The problem is they are using the wrong millet and a less efficient ethanol production technique. So how can it change?

Let’s begin with the sweet sorghum agronomy. The crop is a millet that can be grown with minimum chemical inputs and extends far into the dry-land areas, as well as the rain-fed ones. This is a versatile crop that can practically grow from Punjab to Tamil Nadu.

 

The crop is a sub-variety of sorghum (jowar) that can provide up to 55 litres of ethanol per metric tonne of crushed stalks. While sugarcane can produce 70 litres of ethanol from 1 MT, the disadvantage of sugarcane is that it requires four times the water, is input-heavy, and can only be grown in limited parts of the country.

The other advantage sweet sorghum has over sugarcane is that the plant is an excellent fodder. During its maturity cycle, farmers can harvest its leaves for fodder up to three times, without affecting the sugar content inside the stalk. This creates additional opportunity for the simultaneous development of the dairy sector, which is not possible with sugarcane. Plus, a hectare of sweet sorghum can produce up to 16,000 litres of juice for far less ecological damage, compared to sugarcane or other grains like rice.

 

Globally speaking, the sweet sorghum-based ethanol market is around US$ 4.8 billion, and is estimated to reach US$ 9.2 billion by 2033. India too is trying to diversify its ethanol feedstock by introducing sweet sorghum cultivars like CSV 52SS and CSV 58SS in states like Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Telangana, Punjab, and UP. But we still lack a national sweet sorghum policy, which could supplant sugarcane as the major source of ethanol, while at the same time help increase ethanol production clusters.

The potential for this is huge, as most districts in India can support sweet sorghum as a crop. Farmers are also familiar with sorghum as a crop, and will hence find easy adoption once ethanol plants based on sweet sorghum come up in their vicinity.

 

Next comes financial incentives for building these plants in India, especially in states like UP, MP, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. Currently, most of the production is limited to states like Maharashtra. We can take a big leap by expanding this crop to the North.

Land leasing and land ceiling limits should be relaxed for rural farmers or co-operatives who want to develop sweet sorghum-based clusters. District officials should be empowered to give special permissions for cultivation of the grain for ethanol production in clusters beyond the state limits of land ownership. Each district in the Gangetic plains and rain-fed areas should be encouraged through policy to have at least one sweet sorghum-based ethanol plant.

 

State agriculture universities and ICAR networks should also be encouraged to breed sweet sorghum varieties with higher sugar content that are better suited for ethanol production. If needed, varieties from the USA like honeydew can be interbred with local varieties to achieve higher pest and disease resistance, and higher juice content.

The secondary advantage is that this crop supports the dairy industry, as it provides fodder, hence it doesn’t diminish nutritional availability in the country. The lower agri-chemical inputs required for this crop will also reduce demand for imported fertilisers and increase farmer incomes.

Overall, sweet sorghum is a viable alternative to sugarcane that saves water, soil and our ecology, while ensuring ethanol production remains constant without disruption of the sugar economy.