Comments on: Indian sugar crop failure threatens ethanol http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/blog2/2009/07/03/indian-sugar-crop-failure-threatens-ethanol/ The world's most widely-read biofuels daily Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:30:24 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Joelle Brink http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/blog2/2009/07/03/indian-sugar-crop-failure-threatens-ethanol/comment-page-1/#comment-2954 Joelle Brink Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:19:36 +0000 http://biofuelsdigest.com/blog2/?p=12785#comment-2954 It's hard to say at the momemt because a weak monsoon was forecast this year but so far it has been only slightly less than average. El Nino events typically lead to a weak monsoon in India. Based on long term forecasts http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090227112307.htm , there's no doubt that sugar producers will have to move to a more drought-tolerant crop. That's why sweet sorghum was introduced a few years back. Tata Chemicals has a very successful sweet sorghum pilot plant in Nanded, Maharashtra, using technology supplied by Praj Industries, which says that the process is virtually the same as for sugar cane. Tata plans to build full scale sweet sorghum plants as quickly as possible. One interesting result of climate change is that sugar and ethanol production may gradually shift from the flood plain of Bihar to dry Western India where sweet sorghum thrives best. This would also mean that processing will be done in modern, high capacity ethanol plants rather than the old sugar mills of Bihar, On the other hand, this may put pressure on Bihar to modernize sugar production, which has changed little since the Raj, and introduce sweet sorghum in the dryer parts of the state. It’s hard to say at the momemt because a weak monsoon was forecast this year but so far it has been only slightly less than average. El Nino events typically lead to a weak monsoon in India.

Based on long term forecasts http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090227112307.htm , there’s no doubt that sugar producers will have to move to a more drought-tolerant crop. That’s why sweet sorghum was introduced a few years back. Tata Chemicals has a very successful sweet sorghum pilot plant in Nanded, Maharashtra, using technology supplied by Praj Industries, which says that the process is virtually the same as for sugar cane. Tata plans to build full scale sweet sorghum plants as quickly as possible.

One interesting result of climate change is that sugar and ethanol production may gradually shift from the flood plain of Bihar to dry Western India where sweet sorghum thrives best. This would also mean that processing will be done in modern, high capacity ethanol plants rather than the old sugar mills of Bihar,

On the other hand, this may put pressure on Bihar to modernize sugar production, which has changed little since the Raj, and introduce sweet sorghum in the dryer parts of the state.

]]>