Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Saturday said that the overproduction of sugar was a problem for the economy and stressed the need for diversifying agriculture toward the energy and power sectors.

“Over-production of sugar is a problem for the economy. We spend Rs 15 lakh crore per year for the import of petroleum products, and hence we need to diversify the agriculture sector towards energy and power sectors,” said Gadkari in his address at the felicitation programme of National Cogeneration Awards-2022 here.

According to an official statement, Gadkari exhorted the industry to focus on alternative fuels with the help of futuristic technologies. He said that 65 per cent – 70 per cent of our population depends on agriculture but our agricultural growth rate is 12 per cent – 13 per cent only.

“The sugarcane industry and farmers are a growth engine for our industry. The next move should be cogeneration to increase revenue from sugar. The industry should produce less sugar and produce more by-products, embracing the vision for futuristic technologies and using the power of leadership to convert knowledge into wealth,” he said.

He said that the requirement of sugar in the country was 280 lakh tonne this year but the production was more than 360 lakh tonne. “This could be utilized due to the situation in Brazil.  However, we need to divert production towards ethanol as the ethanol requirement is very high,” the minister pointed out.

“Last year’s capacity was 400 crore litres of ethanol; we have taken a lot of initiatives to increase ethanol production. Now is the time for the industry to plan demand for ethanol, using technologies such as power generators run by bio-ethanol.”

The Minister told the industry that the Central government has decided to launch flex engines in India. “Bajaj, Hero and TVS are already making flex engines, many car manufacturers too have promised to launch their models on flex engines.”

The minister informed how a crucial problem on the calorific value of ethanol has been addressed in discussion with researchers from Russia. “Calorific value of ethanol was less, one litre of petrol equalled 1.3 litres of ethanol, but using Russian technology, we have found a way to make the calorific value of ethanol the same as that of petrol.”

He said that Germany has proven technology to run trains on bio-ethanol. A highly purified version of ethanol can also be used in the aviation industry; the aeronautical sector is doing research on how this can be done, he added. “Bio-CNG is way cheaper than CNG and can be made from rice straw and even from organic municipal waste, making it economically attractive.”

The minister said that the sugar industry faces many problems and that we need rationalisation of power purchase rates; some states are not giving rates as per Central government policy, this is one reason why the sugarcane industry is not economically viable, the minister said, asking the industry to raise the matter at appropriate forums.