NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday reached out to farmers by pitching biofuels as a panacea for the farm sector, saying it will boost their incomes by monetising sugarcane and agri wastes, create rural jobs and enhance India’s energy security.

Addressing a function to mark the World Biofuels Day, Modi outlined his government’s policy measures taken to achieve these goals, which are among the additional takeaways from the plan to double farmers’ income by 2022.

The government’s intention of using the occasion as an outreach exercise was clear from the presence of hundreds of farmers at the function at the invitation of state-run fuel retailers. The Centre has drawn opposition flak over farm distress, with farmers staging protests in Delhi and Mumbai in recent times.

The PM underlined the link between enhancing farm incomes and energy security by setting a target to triple ethanol production in four years to help save Rs 12,000 crore in oil import bill. He said the government sees a Rs 1 lakh crore biofuels economy.

