Discuss the food-versus-fuel debate in the context of India's ethanol programme and suggest a sustainable feedstock strategy.

India raised ethanol blending in petrol from under 1.5% in 2013-14 to 20% in 2025-26 [1]. MoRTH has now amended the CMVR to allow E100 in flex-fuel vehicles [2]. Each new target raises the same question: are food crops and farmland being turned into fuel at the cost of food and feed security?

Food-side concerns

• Grain diversion: About 52 LMT of surplus FCI rice was approved for ethanol in each of ESY 2024-25 and 2025-26 [3]. That rice comes out of the stock kept for the PDS and as a buffer against poor harvests.
• Feed competition: More and more maize now goes to distilleries. Poultry and dairy farmers depend on the same grain, so their feed costs and food prices can rise.
• Water stress: Sugarcane and rice need a lot of water. Pushing them further for fuel will worsen groundwater depletion in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.
• Land use: Ethanol buyers offer good prices. Farmers may move land away from pulses and millets.

Fuel-side arguments

• Policy safeguard: The National Policy on Biofuels allows grain to be converted to ethanol only when there is surplus, with NBCC approval [3][4].
• Surplus management: Central-pool rice stocks have been well above buffer norms [3]. Using the excess cuts storage losses and carrying costs.
• Energy security and farm incomes: Ethanol replaces imported crude and gives cane and maize farmers an assured buyer [1].

Sustainable feedstock strategy

• Move to 2G ethanol: The amended PM JI-VAN Yojana now runs to 2028-29. It funds ethanol made from crop residue, forestry waste, industrial waste and algae [5]. Scale it up from the Panipat plant [6]. This also gives farmers an alternative to stubble burning.
• Grain on a surplus-only rule: Link FCI rice allocations each year to buffer norms, and stop them when stocks fall.
• Water-aware mix: Favour C-heavy molasses, damaged grain and millet or sorghum grown in rain-fed areas over cane juice. Do a crop-water audit before setting any target above E20.
• Other biofuels: Build up compressed biogas (CBG, the SATAT scheme) and electric vehicles, so that ethanol does not have to carry the whole transition.

India's ethanol programme has achieved its blending goal. Its next phase should be judged on whether it stays sustainable, not on how much it blends. A shift to residue-based fuels, backed by food-security rules on grain use, can deliver both energy security and food security in line with SDG 2 and SDG 7.