As climate change intensifies, it is imperative for policymakers to address the escalating loss and damage it inflicts on vulnerable communities in developing countries. In India's Maharashtra state, these impacts are forcing rural families into life-altering decisions and migrations to work in sugarcane fields, where exploitative practices by contractors, including …
A moratorium on grain and oilseed-based biofuels could slash food prices by up to 20% within the next two years, according to leading agricultural researchers. Agricultural experts called for a moratorium on the production of biofuels from corn Figures from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) suggest that suspension …
The fuel ethanol industry has evolved from its experimental beginnings in Brazil in the 1970s and the passionate advocacy of U.S. corn growers in to the mainstream to become a key part of the global energy menu.
Once, plant breeders dreamed of plumper tomatoes, heartier soybeans and juicier corn kernels. These days, visions of squat poplars and earless corn stalks are dancing in their heads. They are hoping these new fangled crops will make cost-effective biofuels.
Bio-fuels hold potential as an energy alternative Bio-fuels have recently been attracting the global spotlight for their potential as an energy alternative. Though increasing environmental concerns have led to a simultaneous cost-benefit analysis, the scales are still tilting in favour of bio-fuels. Goldman Sachs, who predicted a shift in the …
FOR the first time, India has given delivery at Kandla for sugar contracts traded on London's Euronext-Liffe exchange, the world's top market place for sugar. This opens a new route for exports and risk management by domestic sugar companies. With 24 million tonnes of sugar lying in godowns, finding the …
Chairman Pelwatte Sugar Industries Ltd (IPSL) Ariyaseela Wickramanayake has submitted a proposal where the country's full requirement of fuel can be produced by cultivating 65,000 hectares of sugarcane while fulfilling the total requirement of sugar for the country and producing more than 150 megawatts of electricity. The total investment for …
The structure, water use, fertiliser intake, sucrose content, and the very nature of sugar production in sugarcane are likely to undergo major changes with the modern tools of biotechnology and genetic modification. Field trials of GM sugarcane crops for these traits are being undertaken in Brazil and Australia. Cane Technology …
IN times when the world is debating the extent to which the developed countries should be made to limit their farm subsidies running into billions of dollars, a question on the temporary export subsidies being given by India to its sugar industry raised at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) by …
Brazil, the world's largest ethanol producer, has thrown open its doors to investment by Indian companies in sugarcane farming, extracting ethanol and exporting it back home for mixing in petrol. "Yes, yes sure. They can buy ethanol manufacturing companies, invest in cane farming and producing ethanol,' visiting Brazalian Minister of …
Royal Dutch Shell, Europe's biggest oil company, is working on a process to turn sugars into a synthetic petrol, rather than ethanol, with the aim of moving to a commercial demonstration plant in two years' time. The company yesterday announced a joint venture with Virent, a US biotech business based …
Against the background of a glut in sugarcane production, the State Government has decided to continue with last year's decision to provide transport subsidy to sugar factories to provide relief to sugar factories in varied parts of the state. A meeting chaired by Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh okayed the decision …
State's sugar mills owe more than Rs 1,000 crore to farmers. Uttar Pradesh tops the list of sugarcane producing states with outstanding cane arrears payable to growers at Rs 1,106 crore in 2006-07, Agriculture and Food Minister Sharad Pawar said today. "The largest outstanding cane arrears are in UP,' he …
There seems to be no end to sugarcane farmers' misery in the State who every year face the problem of excess production. The farmers this time have taken to the streets expressing their displeasure with the sugarcane package announced by the government. Karnataka stands fourth in the country in the …
The Krishni–Yamuna interstream area is a micro-watershed in the Central Ganga Plain and a highly fertile track of Western Uttar Pradesh. The Sugarcane and wheat are the major crops of the area. Aquifers of Quaternary age form the major source of Irrigation and municipal water supplies. A detailed hydrogeological investigation …
Effect of chelating agents, which include EDTA, Potassium Ferrocyanide and Sodium Potassium tartarate on ethanol production from jaggery using Saccharomyces cerevisiae NCIM 3241, was tested. It was found that addition of chelating agents along with inoculum gave better results and among the three chelating agents EDTA resulted in 72g11 of …
Sugarcane growers in Uttar Pradesh feel sold out to mills Frustration is growing among sugarcane growers in Uttar Pradesh. First private sugar mills refused to begin crushing and now the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has directed mill-owners to pay farmers Rs 110 per 100 kg of the …
How will vast regions of India, where highly unreliable rainfall makes the difference between famine and sustenance, cope with climate change? Over 85 per cent of the cultivated area in this country is either directly dependent on rain or depends on rain to recharge its groundwater. Seasonal rain provides water …
The un Special Rapporteur on the right to food recently has called for a five-year moratorium on biofuels, calling it a "crime against humanity' to convert food crops to fuel. Cereal prices have already soared in African countries putting pressure on them to import food, Jean Ziegler said. Designated a …
