The government’s rice to ethanol policy endangers India’s food security, environmental sustainability and bio-energy policy. The move may resolve an immediate supply chain bottleneck, but fails to address the imminent threat to already-compromised water resources, say economists.
In a recent policy shift with regard to India’s ethanol-blended petrol programme, excess rice stocks of the Food Corporation of India are being made available for ethanol production at a reduced reserve price. India’s ethanol blending policy has gained momentum over the last decade, backed by climate goals, energy security concerns and an aspiration to reduce dependence on imports of fossil fuels.
The policy mandates a gradual increase of ethanol content in petrol, with a target of 20 per cent by 2025-26. This target demands over 1,000 crore litres of ethanol production annually, up from around 545 crore litres in 2023-24. With sugar-based ethanol already capped due to concerns over sugar availability and water use, the grain-based ethanol is expected to fill the gap.
Agriculture economist Devinder Sharma questioned the rationale behind using food grains for cars, while arguing that Punjab farmers are wrongly accused of groundwater depletion when one litre of ethanol blending consumes up to 10,000 litres of water.
“Punjab farmers are often blamed for depleting groundwater levels due to their dependency on paddy cultivation. They are often forced to adopt crop-diversification without assuring any guaranteed returns to their produce. How can the government adopt a policy at the stake of the country’s food security?” he told The Tribune.
“How can the dispensation talk about ethanol blending and solar panels in the same breath? It is sending out wrong messaging. We cannot go back to the ship-to-mouth existence. Like Jawaharlal Nehru one said, ‘Everything else can wait, but not agriculture,’ to emphasise that achieving food security and prioritising the rural farming sector was the nation’s most urgent foundation for survival and progress,” he added.
The expert also wondered why the country can’t take inspiration from China, which has clearly demarcated agriculture land and produce which cannot be used for non-agriculture use.
Currently, there are more than 110 grain-based ethanol manufacturers across India, most relying on maize. Maize has been recommended as the primary grain feedstock for ethanol production due to its lower water footprint in cultivation. However, it is experiencing supply strain due to competing demand from the poultry and livestock industries.
“India’s surplus grain is a problem of design, not volume. The answer lies not in burning food for fuel, but in reforming procurement, distribution and storage systems to channel excess toward nutritional, strategic and humanitarian ends,” food policy analyst Rachna Reddy noted.
She said turning public food stocks into fuel presents a classic “food versus fuel” debate and uses massive amounts of groundwater in regions where water tables are rapidly depleting.
Critics argue that optimising systemic storage and distribution logistics should take priority over biofuel generation.
India’s cropping pattern recommendations by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and NITI Aayog have long advocated diversification away from rice in the Indo-Gangetic plain due to environmental degradation. Encouraging ethanol from rice contradicts these policy prescriptions aimed at sustainable crop diversification.
Supporters of ethanol, however, point out that some rice used for ethanol comes from surplus or damaged grain stocks that might otherwise go to waste.
