Farmers voice strong support for Ethanol after meeting Union Agriculture Minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan

The meeting between the All India Kisan Coordination Committee (AIKCC) and Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan at Krishi Bhavan on Tuesday marks a significant milestone in India's evolving ethanol policy landscape. This engagement reflects the government's growing recognition that successful implementation of the Ethanol Blending Programme (EBP) requires genuine farmer participation, not just top-down targets. The EBP, launched in 2003 and accelerated under the National Biofuel Policy 2018, aims to achieve 20% ethanol blending in petrol by 2025-26 (advanced from 2030), reducing India's crude oil import dependence — which stood at 87.3% in 2022-23, costing over ₹12 lakh crore annually. The AIKCC delegation, representing farmer organisations from eight major agricultural states — Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, and Chandigarh — brought diverse agro-climatic perspectives. Their unified stance is noteworthy: they support ethanol as a pathway to energy security and new markets but demand structural safeguards. This mirrors the constitutional mandate under Article 39(b) and (c) of the Directive Principles of State Policy, which direct the State to ensure that ownership and control of material resources serve the common good and prevent concentration of wealth. The farmers' insistence that "the correct price of the crop reaches the farmer directly" aligns with the spirit of the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, which sought to enable barrier-free trade but faced implementation challenges. Key stakeholders include the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (which sets ethanol procurement prices), the Food Corporation of India (managing surplus rice allocation), sugar mills (primary ethanol producers from molasses), and now, critically, farmer collectives demanding a seat at the table. The Minister's assurance to review pricing balance for maize, rice, and sugarcane feedstocks addresses a core distortion: currently, sugarcane-based ethanol dominates (contributing ~80% of supply), incentivising water-intensive cultivation in drought-prone regions like Maharashtra and Karnataka. Shifting to maize and damaged food grains — as the 2021-22 policy allows — could promote crop diversification, conserve groundwater, and double farmers' income, a goal articulated in the 2016 Doubling Farmers' Income Committee report. The demand to counter misinformation via "reels, short videos and ground-level meetings" highlights the communication gap in science-based policy. Ethanol's critics often cite vehicle compatibility issues, but flex-fuel vehicles (FFVs) compliant with E20 are already being manufactured (e.g., by Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors), and BIS standards (IS 15464) ensure fuel quality. Globally, Brazil's Proálcool programme (since 1975) demonstrates ethanol's viability — Brazil achieves 27% blending and 40% of light vehicles run on flex-fuel. India's E20 rollout, starting April 2023 in select cities, is on track for nationwide coverage by 2025. Future implications are profound. If the government institutionalises farmer consultation — as Minister Chouhan suggested by calling them "partners in policy" — it could set a precedent for participatory governance in agriculture, resonating with the 73rd Constitutional Amendment's vision of empowered Panchayats. A farmer-centric ethanol policy could also align with India's COP26 commitment to net-zero by 2070, as ethanol reduces GHG emissions by 40-60% compared to petrol. However, success hinges on resolving the "food vs fuel" debate: allocating surplus rice (currently 17-18 million tonnes annually from FCI stocks) for ethanol must not compromise food security under the National Food Security Act, 2013. The coming months will test whether policy review translates into remunerative prices, transparent procurement, and diversified feedstock supply chains — turning ethanol from a blending target into a rural transformation engine.