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        For the past few months, smoke has been billowing from huge chimneys outside the city of Meerut in Uttar Pradesh. Sugar mills in the northern states of India process a long conveyor belt of fibrous stalks during the sugar cane grinding season, from October to April. Wet plant waste is burned to generate electricity, and the resulting smoke hangs over the landscape. However, despite seeming activity, the supply of sugarcane to feed the industry is actually declining.
        Arun Kumar Singh, a 35-year-old sugarcane farmer from the village of Nanglamal, about a half-hour drive from Meerut, is concerned. In the 2021-2022 growing season, Singh’s cane crop has been reduced by almost 30% – he typically expects 140,000 kg on his 5-hectare farm, but last year he gained 100,000 kg.
        Singh blamed last year’s record heat wave, erratic rainy season and insect infestation for the poor harvest. High demand for sugar cane is encouraging farmers to grow new, higher yielding but less adaptable varieties, he said. Pointing to his field, he said, “This species was only introduced about eight years ago and needs more water every year. In any case, there is not enough water in our area.”
        The community around Nanglamala is a center for the production of ethanol from sugar and is located in India’s largest sugar cane producing state. But in Uttar Pradesh and across India, sugarcane production is declining. Meanwhile, the central government wants sugar mills to use surplus sugar cane to produce more ethanol.
        Ethanol can be obtained from petrochemical esters or from sugar cane, corn and grain, known as bioethanol or biofuels. Because these crops can be regenerated, biofuels are classified as a renewable energy source.
        India produces more sugar than it consumes. In the 2021-22 season it produced 39.4 million tons of sugar. According to the government, domestic consumption is about 26 million tons per year. Since 2019, India has been fighting a sugar glut by exporting most of it (more than 10 million tons last year), but ministers say it is preferable to use it for ethanol production as it means factories can produce faster. Pay and get more money. flow.
        India also imports fuel in large quantities: 185 million tons of gasoline in 2020-2021 worth $55 billion, according to a report by state think tank Niti Aayog. Therefore, blending ethanol with gasoline is proposed as a way to use sugar, which is not consumed domestically, while achieving energy independence. Niti Aayog estimates that a 20:80 blend of ethanol and gasoline will save the country at least $4 billion a year by 2025. Last year, India used 3.6 million tons, or about 9 percent, of sugar for ethanol production, and it plans to reach 4.5-5 million tons in 2022-2023.
        In 2003, the Government of India launched the ethanol-blended gasoline (EBP) program with the initial target of a 5% ethanol blend. Currently, ethanol makes up about 10 percent of the mix. The Government of India has set a target of reaching 20% ​​by 2025-2026, and the policy is a win-win as it “will help India strengthen energy security, allow local businesses and farmers to participate in the energy economy and reduce vehicle emissions.” establishment of sugar factories and expansion, since 2018 the government has been offering a program of subsidies and financial assistance in the form of loans.
        “The properties of ethanol promote complete combustion and reduce vehicle emissions such as hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and particulates,” the government said, adding that a 20 percent ethanol blend in a four-wheeled vehicle would cut carbon monoxide emissions by 30 percent and reduce hydrocarbon emissions. by 30%. 20% compared to gasoline.
       When burned, ethanol produces 20-40% less CO2 emissions than conventional fuel and can be considered carbon neutral as plants absorb CO2 as they grow.
        However, experts warn that this ignores greenhouse gas emissions in the ethanol supply chain. A US biofuel study last year found that ethanol could be up to 24% more carbon-intensive than gasoline due to emissions from land-use change, increased fertilizer use and ecosystem damage. Since 2001, 660,000 hectares of land in India have been converted to sugar cane, according to government figures.
        “Ethanol can be as carbon-intensive as fuel oil due to carbon emissions from changes in land use for crops, water resource development and the entire ethanol production process,” said Devinder Sharma, an agriculture and trade expert. “Look at Germany. Having realized this, monocultures are now discouraged.”
       Experts are also concerned that the drive to use sugar cane to produce ethanol could have a negative impact on food security.
        Sudhir Panwar, an agricultural scientist and former member of the State Planning Commission of Uttar Pradesh, said that as the price of sugarcane will become increasingly dependent on oil, “it will be called an energy crop.” This, he says, “will lead to more monocropping areas, which will reduce soil fertility and make crops more vulnerable to pests. It will also lead to food insecurity as land and water will be diverted to energy crops.”
        In Uttar Pradesh, Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) officials and Uttar Pradesh sugar cane growers told The Third Pole that large tracts of land are currently not being used for sugar cane to meet growing demand. Instead, they say, the increase in production comes at the expense of existing surpluses and more intensive farming practices.
        Sonjoy Mohanty, CEO of ISMA, said India’s current oversupply of sugar means that “reaching the 20% blend ethanol target will not be a problem.” “Going forward, our goal is not to increase the land area, but to increase production to increase production,” he added.
       While government subsidies and higher ethanol prices have benefited sugar mills, Nanglamal farmer Arun Kumar Singh said farmers have not benefited from the policy.
        Sugarcane is usually grown from cuttings and yields decline after five to seven years. Since sugar mills require large amounts of sucrose, farmers are advised to switch to newer varieties and use chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
        Singh said that in addition to suffering climate damage like last year’s heatwave, the variety on his farm, which is grown all over India, requires more fertilizer and pesticides each year. “Because I only sprayed once per crop, and sometimes more than once, I sprayed seven times this year,” he said.
       “A bottle of insecticide costs $22 and works on about three acres of land. I have [30 acres] of land and I have to spray it seven or eight times this season. The government can increase the profits of the ethanol plant, but what do we get. The price for cane is the same, $4 per centner [100 kg],” said Sundar Tomar, another farmer from Nanglamal.
        Sharma said sugarcane production has depleted groundwater in western Uttar Pradesh, a region that is experiencing both rainfall change and drought. Industry also pollutes rivers by dumping large amounts of organic matter into waterways: sugar mills are the largest source of wastewater in the state. Over time, this will make it harder to grow other crops, Sharma said, directly threatening India’s food security.
       “In Maharashtra, the country’s second largest sugar cane producing state, 70 percent of irrigation water is used to grow sugar cane, which is only 4 percent of the state’s crop,” he said.
        “We have started producing 37 million liters of ethanol per year and have received permission to expand production. The increase in production has brought stable income to farmers. We have also treated almost all of the plant’s wastewater,” said Rajendra Kandpal, CEO. , Nanglamal sugar factory to explain.
        “We need to teach farmers to limit their use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides and switch to drip irrigation or sprinklers. As for sugar cane, which consumes a lot of water, this is not a cause for concern, since the state of Uttar Pradesh is rich in water.” This was stated by the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) Abinash Verma, former CEO. Verma developed and implemented central government policy on sugar, sugar cane and ethanol, and opened its own grain ethanol plant in Bihar in 2022.
       In light of reports of declining sugarcane production in India, Panwar warned against repeating Brazil’s experience in 2009-2013, when erratic weather conditions led to lower sugarcane production as well as lower ethanol production.
       “We cannot say that ethanol is environmentally friendly, given all the costs the country has to produce ethanol, the pressure on natural resources and the impact on the health of farmers,” Panwar said.
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