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choice, but sorghum is better, much better. I learn that from ICRISAT, whose paradigm / shift I quoted earlier, the
institutional focus / strategy being ‘Science with a human face’ / ‘From grey to green’ (William Dar, January 2007,
Nurturing Life In The Drylands Of Hope, Andhra Pradesh, India: ICRISAT, 160 pages). ICRISAT is led by a visionary.
The Yankees are led by a blurred visionary.
Comparing crops as sources of ethanol, the biofuel of choice of Brazil, India, the Philippines, the US, France and
many other countries, ICRISAT’s brochure ‘Sweet Sorghum’ (Belum VS Reddy et al., 2006, 24 pages) and the Food
and Agriculture Organization (Agriculture21, 2002, fao.org) tell us that:
(1) Sweet sorghum can grow like no crop has grown before: in drylands, acidic or basic soils, waterlogged fields.
(2) Sweet sorghum grows faster than sugarcane, 200 days (2 crops) vs 365 days.
(3) Sweet sorghum needs 4.5 times less water than sugarcane, 8,000 (2 crops) vs 36,000 cubic meters. No
irrigation necessary.
(4) Cost of cultivation of sweet sorghum is 3 times less than that of sugarcane.
(5) Sweet sorghum is easily planted, 5 kg of seeds to a hectare;
sugarcane requires the handling of 5,000 cuttings. Many
hands don’t make light work.
(6) Ethanol production process from sweet sorghum is eco-friendly
while that from sugarcane is not.
(7) Ethanol from sweet sorghum is better than from sugarcane for
two reasons: it has lower sulphur content (is less polluting)
and higher octane (yields more power).
In India, in Andhra Pradesh, with ICRISAT’S as Agri-Business Incubator
(ABI) incubator of technology (their term), William Dar, PhD, Director
General of ICRISAT, inaugurated on 2 October 2006 the production
of commercial ethanol by Rusni Distilleries Ltd. In an interview, Dar tells me that Rusni is owned by Mr Palani
Swamy, an Indian national. Rusni is a multi-feedstock system, meaning it can squeeze the juice from sweet
sorghum as well as from sugarcane & other materials. Rusni has already made history: It is the first of its kind in
the world (Reddy et al., cited), that is, a commercial sweet sorghum ethanol plant born out of the coalition of the
willing: science, citizen and government. Doesn’t the world owe that lesson from the Yankees?
The sweet sorghum story has happened in India, which before that has been advertising itself as
(tourisminindia.com) The Destination Of The New Millennium. It is now.
The Yankee Dawdle