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Sweet Sorghum Research and Development in India: Status and Prospects

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Abstract

Renewable energy is a critical source of energy that contributes to energy security, reducing dependence on fossil fuels and emission of greenhouse gases. India would require more than 6.3 billion liters of ethanol to meet its ambitious target of 20 % EBP by 2017. Sweet sorghum is a promising dryland adapted biofuel feedstock that addresses food-versus-fuel issue favourably. Owing to its genetic variability in terms of stalk sugar traits such as total soluble sugars, green stalk yield, juice quantity and grain yield various research institutes in India and abroad have developed superior varieties and hybrids. Two commercial sweet sorghum based distilleries were established in India but could not operate for long for several reasons. The decentralized crushing units were established to overcome the issues encountered by centralized units. The large scale cultivation of sweet sorghum can happen if improved cultivars with higher sugar yield with multiple biotic and abiotic stress tolerance are available besides more importantly the policy support from Government of India in terms of both producer and processor incentives materialize.

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Acknowledgments

We thank for the financial support from the European commission sweet fuel Project Vide No. 22724 and Indo-German Project Vide No 81150064.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru, Hyderabad, 502 324, Andhra Pradesh, India

    K. S. Vinutha, Laavanya Rayaprolu & P. Srinivasa Rao

  2. Directorate of Sorghum Research (DSR), Rajendranagar, Hyderabad, 500 030, Andhra Pradesh, India

    K. Yadagiri, A. V. Umakanth & J. V. Patil

Authors
  1. K. S. Vinutha
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  2. Laavanya Rayaprolu
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  3. K. Yadagiri
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  4. A. V. Umakanth
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  5. J. V. Patil
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  6. P. Srinivasa Rao
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to P. Srinivasa Rao.

Additional information

K. S. Vinutha and Laavanya Rayaprolu have contributed equally.

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Vinutha, K.S., Rayaprolu, L., Yadagiri, K. et al. Sweet Sorghum Research and Development in India: Status and Prospects. Sugar Tech 16, 133–143 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12355-014-0302-9

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