Farmers need not only be food growers, but energy producers as well: Gadkari

Bio-CNG is way cheaper than CNG and can be made from rice straw and even from organic municipal waste, making it economically attractive, Gadkari said

Calling for diversification of the agriculture sector towards energy and power sectors, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said over-production of sugar is a problem for the economy and hence farmers need not only be food growers, but energy producers as well.

“Over-production of sugar is a problem for the economy; we spend Rs. 15 lakh crores per year for import of petroleum products, hence we need to diversify the agriculture sector towards energy and power sectors,” Gadkari said while addressing the felicitation programme of National Cogeneration Awards 2022 in Mumbai on Saturday.

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“While 65 per cent to 70 per cent of our population depends on agriculture, our agricultural growth rate is 12 per cent-13 per cent only; the sugarcane industry and farmers are a growth engine for our industry. And the next move should be co-generation to increase revenue from sugar. The industry should produce less sugar and produce more byproducts, embracing the vision for futuristic technologies and using the power of leadership to convert knowledge into wealth,” he said.

Gadkari said that while our requirement was 280 lakh tonnes of sugar this year, the production was more than 360 lakh tonnes; this could be utilised due to the situation in Brazil.

“However, we need to divert production towards ethanol as the ethanol requirement is very high…Last year's capacity was 400 crore litres of ethanol; we have taken a lot of initiatives to increase ethanol production. Now is the time for the industry to plan demand for ethanol, using technologies such as power generators run by bioethanol,” he said.

The Minister told the industry that the Government has decided to launch flex engines in India. “Bajaj, Hero and TVS are already making flex engines, many car manufacturers too have promised to launch their models on flex engines,” he informed.

The Minister informed how a crucial problem on the calorific value of ethanol has been addressed in discussion with researchers from Russia. “Calorific value of ethanol was less, 1 litre of petrol equalled 1.3 litre of ethanol, but using Russian technology, we have found a way to make the calorific value of ethanol the same as that of petrol.”

The Minister informed that even auto-rickshaws can be run on bioethanol; in the construction equipment industry too, alternative fuels can be used, similarly, Germany has proven technology to run trains on bio-ethanol. A highly purified version of ethanol can also be used in the aviation industry; the aeronautical sector is doing research on how this can be done, he added.

“Bio-CNG is way cheaper than CNG and can be made from rice straw and even from organic municipal waste, making it economically attractive," he said.