Kanpur; National Sugar Institute (NSI) is working with Balrampur Chini mills and Bharat Dalmia Sugars to undertake trials for intercropping sweet sorghum with Sugarcane as an alternate source for ethanol production, reports The Times of India.
Though the sugar beet grows in cold climatic conditions its trials were taken in North India from November to April.
Growing sugarcane along with sweet sorghum will help farmers to increase their income as well as it would increase ethanol production per hectare.
Sugarcane farmers’ income would increase by 35% while ethanol output would rise by around 30 per cent.
Trials of these crops conducted at the fields of the NSI have indicated an increase in the yield of sweet sorghum and the potential of ethanol production to be 50-55 tonnes per hectare and 45-50 liter per metric tonne respectively.
