Uttar Pradesh will commence production of ethanol directly from sugarcane from the next cane crushing season commencing from October. Ethanol used for blending with petrol will be produced at the public sector undertaking Pipraich sugar mill at Gorakhpur and Balrampur sugar mill. The UP government had decided in October last year to produce ethanol directly from sugarcane and a pilot project was started at the Pipraich sugar mill.

UP is the top producer of the ethanol in India and more use of the commodity for blending with petrol will help the industry to earn more revenue and clear the payment of the farmers. There are 53 distilleries producing ethanol and annual installed capacity is 158.44 crore litre. In the financial year 2016-17, UP produced 42.70 crore litres of ethanol which increased to 99.31 crore litre in 2020-21. UP has 72 distilleries which include 25 standalone and 47 attached with the sugar mills. Sugar Industry Minister Suresh Rana said in a press conference on Monday that the hike in State advisory price of sugarcane for the next crushing season 2021-22 would fetch an additional over `4,000 crore to the farmers. He said the sugar mills had cleared 100 per cent payment of the 2019-20 and over 85 per cent of the last season (2020-21) had been cleared by the industry. He said against the demand of ` 33,014 crore, the sugar mills had so far paid `28,015 crore to the farmers for the 2020-21 season.

 He said during the 10-year rule of the Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party from 2007 to 2017, sugar mills made total payment of `1,47 lakh crore to the farmers while the  during the four years of  Yogi Adityanath government, the payment made from 2017 to 2021 was ` 1,44 lakh crore till September 21 this year.

“The focus of the Bharatiya Janata Party government in the last four years was on ensuring payment to the farmers, reviving the closed sugar mills and introducing the latest technology in the industry,” the Minister said.