Competing with Hydrogen/Green Hydrogen

Lack of Data to quantify decarbonization

Red rot disease in can farming

global warming

India is not Brazil because we are not giving product value; transition only happening in 1-G ethanol

We don't have a rationale for pricing of ethanol and CBG

Productivity of Sugarcane farming has gone down due to excessive use of chemical fertilizer

mentality of farmer -> lives in a false hope that something will happen right and follows herd mentality

Low trickle down of technology to farmers

Low production in organic farming and high production in chemical farming -> in case of UP: Maharashtra scenario is the reverse

Carbonation process used to be there in Mawana sugars, but too many processes were involved; Government stopped that because hills were being mined -> Then sulphatation process was started which was also creating barriers for sugar industry

Some sugar mills that were running for 8 months, now only running for 4 months -> Godavari sugars in Karnataka

Large Sugar Mills increases the logistics cost and operations and maintainace cost of harvested sugarcane for farmers

Farmers don't have the knowhow to produce value added products

Our farming is mainly manual and less mechanical

MSP has been a big barrier for farms

future generations of farmers only don't want to do the agriculture. So who will do the farming?

non-timely payments by sugar factories. payments of almost 4 years reamining for farmers -> payments of 1 year still remaining

soil carbon depleting over years, and will keep depleting

Element of additionality makes difficult to generate carbon credits from existing sustainable practices used by farmers

Optimising the potential of Biomass

Decarbonisation, Energy Efficiency and Value distribution across sugar value chain

Deliberating on how can farmers free up their time from agriculture and focus on incomes -> and not just focus on sugar mills' recovery

focus on small industries by farmers, and not just sugar industry

Data Bank - Standardizing and Quantifying decarbonization

Need to do energy efficiency at the upstream end and there will be a value to share with farmers

Biochar production -> topsoil carbon regeneration

Value proposition of sugarcane can be realized by wider adoption of its products and byproducts such as aviation fuel.

Biomass is more than a fuel, it is a carbon source: India's future lies in green hydrogen and it will come from solar

Animal Husbandry is important along with farming

Identify markets for innovative products

capturing carbon and heat from boilers of industry: from flue gas temperature also and also from boilers

CBG and biogas toolkits are available for all. These should be made more affordable

Improved conversation between stakeholders and policymakers is key to capture the larger and granular issues

Resistant Variety of seeds with higher sugar recovery

High value proposition for sugar industry should be supported

Market determined pricing for ethanol by competitive bidding (Transparency and Commercial viability)

Decentralised generation of Green Hydrogen

Require a biofuel centric aggregating and marketing PSE

Regular monitoring systems through satellite data systems for farming

preservation of good quality variety is important - collective responsibility

Re-carbonisation of soil - trapping of flue gases

Giving the responsibility to sugar mill to recarbonise the soil

Start small sugar plants, rather than big plants -> mills need to be decentralised

Startup incubators and FPOs can provide the know-how and how to scale up the business

Financial solution -> have separate price for commercial and domestic rates for cane

Farmer should grow napier grass also

capacity building and skilling needs to be incorporated in the value chain: including unpaid labourers, farmers; village entrepreneurs

farmer groups can run the narratives to drive the policy change

Lessons from Jaisalmer's agriculture -> farming hapening without irrigation, only rain water harvesting

Briquettes and palletes can be made by farmers and small businesses -> create a more structured market -> Govt gives subsidy on briquette plant, if it is linked to cremation and even otherwise.

Carbon credits should be given to farmers using briquette and pallettes, and to people planting trees.

land bank can be used as a collateral; with support from FPOs

Agriculture as a carbon repository

New sugar varieties coming in -> with increased sugar recovery

Monoculture of Sugarcane

Water intensive crop - Exacerbates water scarcity

mainstreaming of farmer's perspective is key to understand the larger perspective