Farmer representatives are urging the Centre to introduce a Maize Control Order, similar to regulations in the sugar sector, to ensure that ethanol producers purchase maize from farmers at the minimum support price (MSP).
Speaking in New Delhi on Sunday, Rampal Jat, president of the Kisan Mahapanchayat, said that designating maize as an essential commodity through a control order would guarantee MSP for farmers selling directly to distilleries. Such a move, he argued, would also lift overall market prices—just as wheat prices strengthened during the 2025 procurement season.
Jat pointed out that while the average mandi price of maize is currently ₹1,821 per quintal, this should translate into an ethanol price of ₹54 per litre. However, the government’s ethanol procurement price has been fixed at ₹71.86 per litre, calculated on the basis of MSP rather than actual mandi rates.
He also highlighted the rapid expansion in maize cultivation: from 91.9 lakh hectares and 241.7 lakh tonnes of production in 2014–15 to 120.17 lakh hectares and 422.81 lakh tonnes in 2024–25. Jat credited this growth to the government’s longstanding emphasis on ethanol blending, first announced after it came to power in 2014, with promises that farmers would become “energy providers” and petrol would eventually be available to consumers at ₹55 per litre.
