Maize in focus as government pushes for cleaner ethanol-blended fuel
NEW DELHI : The Union government is discussing a proposal for state-run cooperatives to procure maize, or corn, from farmers from the next Rabi season to meet its ambitious ethanol-blended fuel target, a top official said. If the proposal goes through, the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (Nafed) and the National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation Of India Ltd (NCCF) will procure maize from farmers at state-set guaranteed prices, Union food and public distribution secretary Sanjeev Chopra told Mint in an interview. Currently, biofuels such as ethanol are made primarily from sugarcane and grains such as rice and maize.
Nearly 25% of the country’s ethanol is made from cane juice, while another 50% comes from molasses, a byproduct of sugarcare refining. The rest comes from grains. The government is targeting blending 20% ethanol with petrol by 2025-26, up from 10% now, in its push for less-polluting fuel.
The discussions come at a time when India’s sugar production is estimated to fall further due to patchy rainfall, hampering supply of molasses for ethanol-production. In the 2023-24 crop season, sugar production is expected to be 31.4 million tonnes against last season’s 32.7 mt after diversion towards ethanol. “All the states that grow maize will be covered.
This will be a policy signal to ethanol plants that they should switch to maize rather than depending on sugar," Chopra said. In the first phase, the government aims to procure 1.8 million tonnes of maize from farmers during the 2024-25 Rabi season—crops typically sown during October or November. “We are discussing a proposal with the ministries concerned to allow the procurement of maize by Nafed and NCCF from farmers at MSP (minimum
. Read more on livemint.com
