India backs down from rice-based ethanol following criticism

In India, Cogencis reports that following harsh criticism over the plan to use surplus rice as ethanol feedstock, the government is looking to drop the idea. The government doesn’t want to be seen using feedstuffs for ethanol during the COVID-19 pandemic but it also believes that giving free rice to the poor also gives the wrong impression. The government was looking to boost the price paid for rice-based ethanol in order to encourage distillers to increase use of the feedstock but they wanted an even higher price to put it at a par with ethanol produced from sugarcane juice.