Praj Industries joined hands with ICRISAT by signing a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) to become a member of the institute's Sweet Sorghum Ethanol Research Consortium (SSERC) on 10 December. Dr William Dar, Director General of ICRISAT, and Mr Shashank Inamdar, CEO & Managing Director of Praj Industries, signed the MOA at Hyderabad.

Director General William Dar and Team ICRISAT welcomes Mr Shashank Inamdar, CEO & Managing Director of Praj Industries, and his team to ICRISAT-Patancheru.

According to Dr William Dar, this partnership will go a long way in enhancing the commercialization of sweet sorghum for bioethanol production globally. Production of ethanol from sweet sorghum as a biofuel can provide additional income to dryland farmers and does not compromise their food security. Through the ICRISAT Sweet Sorghum Ethanol Research Consortium (SSERC), the institute promotes the technology for producing the biofuel through public-private partnership. The overall goal of this consortium is to strengthen sweet sorghum research at ICRISAT and at its partners' locations to improve the livelihood options of the smallholder farmers in the semi-arid tropics.

Praj Industries based in Pune, Maharashtra, India, is a leading biofuels technology company with a number of ethanol and biodiesel production plants to its credit. Praj, with its global operations, aims to provide end-to-end solutions backed by several years of research and development resources to support the biofuels industry. Through the MOA, Praj Industries could avail the sweet sorghum research outputs of ICRISAT to further refine their bioethanol engineering activities. This includes the testing of sweet sorghum varieties and hybrids along with technical know-how on sweet sorghum cultivation aspects.

Through this partnership, ICRISAT and Praj can work together to tap into the huge global opportunity to benefit millions of farmers by offering new market opportunities through the sweet sorghum for ethanol technology.

For further information, contact Dr Belum VS Reddy at b.reddy@cgiar.org, or Dr Kiran Sharma at k.Sharma@cgiar.org.