NEW DELHI: While the use of rice, maize and damaged food grain for ethanol manufacturing has increased manifold in the past six years, maize has surpassed rice sold by Food Corporation of India (FCI) to distilleries under govt’s ethanol blended petrol (EBP) programme.Food ministry’s data submitted to Lok Sabha on Wednesday show that till June end of the current 2025-26 ethanol supply year (Oct to Sept), a little over 54 lakh tonne of FCI’s surplus rice and damaged foodgrain (including broken rice) had been used by distilleries under EBP programme, while the figure for maize was around 68 lakh tonne. Two months of the current ethanol supply year (ESY) are still left.Data show that there was no use of maize for ethanol manufacturing during ESY of 2020-21 and 2021-22. After a modest start in ESY 2022-23 with 8.3 lakh tonne of maize being used for manufacturing the bio-fuel, the figure jumped to 75.4 lakh tonne the next year and 131 lakh tonne in ESY 2024-25, which was an all-time high. In comparison, a little over 50 lakh tonne of FCI’s surplus rice and broken rice was used for ethanol production in 2024-25.The ministry said, “Diversification of feedstock base for ethanol production to sugarcane juice, B-heavy molasses, C-heavy molasses, maize, damaged food grains, surplus FCI rice has reduced dependence on any single feedstock or crop and has supported agricultural diversification.” It added that inclusion of maize as a feedstock for ethanol production has helped provide farmers with assured markets and ensured better prices.FCI sells surplus rice for ethanol production after meeting the requirements under National Food Security Act and other welfare schemes and maintaining a buffer stock, the ministry stated. FCI had stopped supply of rice for ethanol production during ESY 2022-23.
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As per sugar industry, only 2,890 million litres of ethanol, just 28% of the total requirement, are to be procured from sugar-based feedstocks for ESY 2025–26, compared to 72% or 7,610 million litres from grain-based sources, of which 4,780 million litres are from maize (45%), and 2,830 million litres from rice (22%).On Tuesday, govt informed Rajya Sabha that FCI had sold rice to ethanol distilleries at Rs 2,250-2,320 per quintal during June 2025–June 2026, about 40% below its acquisition cost of Rs 3,720-3,889 a quintal. FCI’s average acquisition cost includes MSP and storage and carrying costs.
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