Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh, India
June 13, 2007
The pioneering project to produce
ethanol from sweet sorghum, being implemented jointly by the
International Crops Research
Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and
Rusni Distilleries,
has achieved a significant milestone with the first batch of
ethanol flowing out of the distillery at Mohammed Shapur village
in Andhra Pradesh, India.
The ethanol produced at the distillery marks a major success in
the public-private partnership project. The project generates
ethanol as a biofuel from the sugar-rich juice extracted from
sweet sorghum stalks. This provides the resource-poor farmers of
the drylands with a source of additional income even while they
do not lose out on food security.
According to Dr William Dar, Director General of ICRISAT, the
production of ethanol has turned the dream of ICRISAT and Rusni
Distilleries into a sweet reality. Sweet sorghum ethanol does
not compromise food security since the farmers can continue to
use the grain for food.
"The project successfully blends ICRISAT's scientific capability
in developing sweet sorghum varieties with higher juice
availability with the entrepreneurial capability of Rusni
Distilleries. This we have linked with the dryland farmers
through the grass-roots networking strength our other partner
Aakrithi Agricultural Associates of India (AAI)," added Dr Dar.
Though the Rusni Distilleries plant introduced the pioneering
technology to prepare ethanol from sweet sorghum, it has been
designed to be able to use multiple feedstocks. "We can produce
ethanol from sugarcane juice or from any grain including sorghum
and corn grains that farmers have in excess after meeting their
needs," said Mr AR Palaniswamy, Managing Director of Rusni
Distilleries. "This ensures that we run the plant and provide
employment to farmers throughout the year."
ICRISAT's crop breeding successes with sweet sorghum will soon
help overcome the problem of getting sweet sorghum throughout
the year for the distillery. With the sorghum breeders at the
Institute having developed hybrids that can be planted at any
time of the year, the limitation of planting only during the
crop season has been overcome.
With the monsoons approaching Peninsular India and the sowing
having started for the Kharif (rainy) season, ICRISAT, Rusni
Distilleries and AAI have launched a campaign with the dryland
farmers of Andhra Pradesh, encouraging and helping them to plant
sweet sorghum.
According to Mr G Subba Rao, Director of AAI, the aim is to
cover at least 4000 acres during this Kharif season. The farmers
have been identified in village clusters, and seeds of improved
varieties have been distributed to them. A mechanism has also
been designed to collect sweet sorghum stalks from the farmers,
have them crushed at the cluster centers and the syrup
transported to Rusni Distilleries.
ICRISAT is leading a consortium of partners for developing sweet
sorghum as a source of biofuel under the National Agricultural
Innovation Program of the Government of India. Under this
project, ICRISAT and partners are developing a proposal to
strengthen molecular research and breeding of sweet sorghum, and
strengthen linkages between the farmers and Rusni Distilleries.
Through its ethanol from sweet sorghum project, ICRISAT has been
promoting the idea of generating bio-fuel without compromising
on food production. "Our emphasis with the sweet sorghum project
is that ethanol is produced from the sweet juice available in
the stalk of the crop plant, unlike in the use of grains in
other plants. The farmers will continue to use the sorghum
grain, while they can earn an additional income from selling the
juice," said Dr Belum VS Reddy, ICRISAT's Principal Sorghum
Breeder.
ICRISAT's emphasis counters the global debate against biofuels,
which are said to be taking away food crop agricultural lands
for growing biofuel crops. Already countries are taking policy
decisions that will prevent conversion of land available for
food crops for growing biofuel crops. The Xinhua News Agency
reported that the Chinese Government has asked biofuel crop
growers to switch to crops such as sweet sorghum for their
projects. The Philippine Government has also decided not to use
corn for bioethanol production and has invested in research and
development of other crops such as sweet sorghum and cassava for
this purpose.
Sweet sorghum has other benefits over sugarcane and maize as
feedstock for ethanol production. It requires only one half of
the water required to grow maize and around one eighth of the
water required to grow sugarcane; and has the least cost of
cultivation which is around one fifth of the cost for growing
sugarcane.
Sweet sorghum is also a carbon neutral crop, according to the
Latin American Thematic Network on Bioenergy (LAMNET). This
means that the amount of carbon dioxide that sweet sorghum fixes
during its growing period is equal to the amount it emits during
crop growth, conversion to ethanol and combustion of ethanol.
The first batch of ethanol produced at Rusni Distilleries makes
available the crop and technology necessary to launch a global
pro-poor biofuel revolution. |
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