Gadkari says plain sugar's future is not bright

Nitin Gadkari, the Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, recently urged sugar mills to transition from producing plain sugar to value-added bio-products. This shift comes after India switched its third-largest car market to E20 petrol, which contains 20% ethanol. At the National Efficiency Awards ceremony, Gadkari emphasized that the country’s agriculture sector could help reduce the cost of imported fossil fuels while promoting prosperity in rural India.

Diversifying into CBG, ethanol, bio-manure, and sustainable aviation fuel was key to the future of sugar mills, Gadkari insisted. He claimed that converting sugarcane by-products into gas could increase farmer earnings, suggesting a potential rise from the current Rs 4,000 to as much as Rs 6,000 per tonne of sugarcane. By avoiding waste disposal in road embankments and converting these by-products into CBG, India could save Rs 22 lakh crore in fossil fuel imports.

Gadkari highlighted that India has already registered 1,908 CBG plants, with 132 already operational. The country has the potential to produce 50,000 tonnes of CBG daily, although current output accounts for only around 2% of that capacity. The government has introduced a dedicated scheme and mandatory procurement obligations to support this initiative, which could inject Rs 2.5 lakh crore into the rural economy and create up to 15 lakh jobs.

CBG, or compressed biogas, is a renewable gas produced from organic waste through anaerobic digestion. This gas can replace conventional natural gas, such as CNG, allowing for integration into the existing gas ecosystem.