New Delhi: The diversion of surplus broken rice to produce ethanol is not impacting food inflation, as ethanol production is allowed only after maintaining adequate buffer stocks and meeting the requirements under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and other welfare schemes, the Parliament was informed on Wednesday.
In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Food Nimuben Jayantibhai Bambhaniya said that after maintaining buffer stocks and providing for requirements under the NFSA, the government sells only excess rice from the Central Pool under the Open Market Sale Scheme, which is then allocated as feedstock for ethanol production.
She also stated that the inclusion of maize as a feedstock for ethanol production has helped to provide an assured market and better prices to the country’s farmers growing the crop.
The minister highlighted that the third advance estimates of foodgrain production for 2025-26 project India’s maize output at 55 million tonnes, which is sufficient to meet the demand for ethanol production, feed for poultry and cattle as well as other purposes.
“To maintain feed availability, the poultry feed industry is also adopting other domestically available ingredients such as rice bran, broken rice, bajra and wheat offal,” she added.
The minister further stated that in the ethanol supply year 2024-25, which ended in November, around 13.1 million tonnes of maize was used for ethanol production, while the quantity of surplus rice with the Food Corporation of India (FCI) was around 3.18 million tonnes.
India produces ethanol from rice, maize and sugarcane, with maize accounting for the largest share in recent years, surpassing sugarcane.
The government has also issued a factsheet earlier this month to explain that the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme has emerged as a key pillar of India’s energy transition and biofuel strategy, which has saved India’s foreign exchange by reducing crude oil imports, lowered greenhouse gas emissions, and strengthened farmers’ incomes through new market opportunities.
From 2014-15 up to May 2026, the ethanol blending programme has resulted in a saving of over Rs 1.90 lakh crore in foreign exchange by substituting 310 lakh metric tonnes of imported crude oil and has generated additional earnings for farmers of more than Rs 1.6 lakh crore. Besides, it has cut carbon emissions of over 930 lakh metric tonnes, the factsheet highlighted.
(IANS)
