Indian Government allows Ethanol production from cereals- Fuel from Food

In a major reversal of policy Government of India allowed Cereals as feed for production of Ethanol with fiscal incentives. o achieve 20% blending by 2025 as well as to meet out the requirement of ethanol production capacity in the country, the Department of Food & Public Distribution has modified earlier scheme & notified the modified scheme for extending financial assistance to project proponents for enhancement of their ethanol distillation capacity or to set up distilleries for producing 1st Generation (1G) ethanol from feed stocks such as cereals (rice, wheat, barley, corn & sorghum), sugarcane, sugar beet etc. or converting molasses based distilleries to dual feed stock vide notification dated 14th January, 2021. 

• In 2009, the National Policy on Biofuels stressed on the use of non-food resources to avoid a possible conflict between food and fuel. 
• In 2018, the government modified its 2009 policy. The new National Policy on Biofuels had a target of 20 per cent blending of ethanol in petrol and 5 per cent blending of biodiesel in diesel by 2030. This was to be achieved by increasing production using second generation bio-refineries and developing new feedstock for biofuels. It allowed the production of ethanol from damaged food grains like wheat and broken rice, which are unfit for human consumption.
• Policy 2021: To achieve 20 % blending by 2025 & to meet the requirement of chemical & other sectors, about 1200 crore liters of alcohol / ethanol would be required; out of which 900 crore liters would be required to achieve 20% blending & 300 crore liters would be the requirement of chemical & other sectors. Out of total requirement of 1200 crore liters, 700 crore liters is required to be supplied by sugar industry & another 500 crore liters need to be supplied by grain based distilleries.To produce 500 crore liters of ethanol/alcohol from food grains, about 125 LMT of food grains would be utilized; this extra consumption of surplus food grains would ultimately benefit the farmers as they will get better price for their produce and assured buyers; and thus will also increase the income of crores of farmers across the country.