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“The ethanol blending mess” (Business Line, September 24) highlighted the important issue of how ethanol blending will help the farmers and attempted to pinpoint the various reasons why this has not yet been implemented. Here, I would like to add a few points.

If the policy is implemented, India may face food crisis. Land is a scarce resource and not feely available. If the policy is implemented the current agricultural land which farmers use to cultivate wheat and rice may be shifted to bio-fuel crops such as Jatropha, as the monetary benefits are far greater.

Also, crops other than bio-fuels, such as sugarcane, may be transferred for the production of ethanol. This may result in result in reduction in supplies of sugarcane for the sugar industry, which will result in a steep rise in sugar prices.

Similar cases have been observed in other global markets, including Mexico, where maize, which has been the country’s staple diet, was transferred in large quantities to produce ethanol, thus resulting in shortage of food, and increase in food prices.

In contrast to this, people may say that Jatropha and other bio-fuels can be cultivated in semi-arid swathes that are available in plenty in India. But the problem will be how to prevent other lands from being converted to cultivation of bio-fuels, as everyone wants to earn more from their land.

Also, India is a very big market, consuming over billions of barrels of oil annually, and even a 10 per cent mandated blend will require a huge amount of bio-fuel, which will require huge land areas for cultivation, which may not be readily available.

Thus, what is required first is a proper study of the market reality; then policies need to be formulated, and implemented. On the technology front there should not be any problem, as similar concepts have been adopted successfully in other countries. Thus, by implementing the decision in a proper way, it would help the common man, the farmers and the nation.

Jim Kim e-mail

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