With an aim to boost domestic agriculture sector, environment benefits, reducing import dependency and savings in foreign exchange, the Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Rameswar Teli has said that the Government is promoting Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme.
The minister noted that ethanol from sugarcane route is not sufficient to achieve blending targets and for other uses. In view of surplus availability of food grains like maize and rice, ethanol from damaged food grains, maize and surplus rice with FCI has been allowed.
Besides, the Government is encouraging farmers to diversify from water intensive crops like rice, sugarcane, etc. to more sustainable crops like maize. Further, National Food Security Mission (NFSM) is being implemented in the country for increasing the production and productivity of food-grains including maize. The Minister also said that the Government is already providing subsidized food grains to more than 80 crore beneficiaries across the country through ‘PM Gareeb Kalyan Yojana’.
