Discuss the economic and environmental trade-offs of India's Ethanol Blended Petrol Programme, especially in relation to food security and water use.

India reached E20 (20% ethanol in petrol) in ESY 2025-26. That was years ahead of the 2030 target in the National Policy on Biofuels, 2018 [1]. The programme improves energy security, but it costs food and water.

Economic trade-offs

• Gains: ethanol has saved over ₹1.97 lakh crore in forex since ESY 2014-15 [2]. It also gives cane and grain farmers an assured market.
• Costs: maize ethanol is bought at about ₹71.86/litre, before GST and transport [3]. When crude is near USD 70/barrel, E20 can cost as much as pure petrol [3]. The country saves on imports, but fuel does not get cheaper for buyers.
• Consumer burden: mileage falls by about 1–2% in E20-calibrated vehicles and 3–6% in some others [2]. Buyers carry this loss.

Environmental trade-offs

• Gains: about 952 lakh MT less CO₂ has been emitted since ESY 2014-15 [2]. Cleaner fuel also supports India's climate commitments.
• Costs: if the feedstock comes from irrigation-heavy crops, the benefit across the fuel's full life cycle shrinks (see below).

Food security

• NITI Aayog estimated that about 165 LMT of food grains would be needed for grain ethanol by 2025-26 [4].
• Maize now supplies over a third of ethanol [3]. It is also poultry and cattle feed, so more distillery demand raises costs for milk and eggs.
• The Economic Survey warned that maize incentives are pulling farmers away from pulses and oilseeds [5].
• A Parliamentary Standing Committee asked MoPNG to work with the Department of Food on how much rice can go to ethanol without hurting food security [6].

Water use

• About 2,860 litres of water go into one litre of sugar-based ethanol once cane irrigation is counted [4]. The Government cites only 3–5 litres of processed water used inside plants [7]. The first figure is the one that matters for groundwater.
• Sugarcane and paddy use about 70% of irrigation water [4]. A fixed E20 mandate in a drought year would draw more on scarce aquifers.

Cane/Grain → Ethanol → E20
   ↓            ↓         ↓
Water/food    Farm      Forex saved,
 pressure    income     CO₂ reduced

Flowchart: where E20's benefits and costs arise

Overall, the EBP saves on imports and emissions but adds to food, feed and groundwater pressure. Three steps would make E20 sustainable: shift to 2G ethanol from crop waste under PM JI-VAN Yojana, reward water-light crops as NITI Aayog recommends [4], and set limits on grain diversion [6]. India could then advance SDG 7 (clean energy) without weakening SDG 2 (zero hunger) or SDG 6 (water).