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00:00 Fields of plenty. But these crops won't find their way to the dinner table.
00:04 This sugarcane has grown to become ethanol or biofuel.
00:07 A renewable form of energy.
00:09 For such crops can be replanted year after year.
00:12 They're a boon for India, a nation that produces more sugar than it needs
00:16 and has to import petrol.
00:18 Indian farmers will benefit from biofuel production
00:23 because the sugarcane produce will be converted into fuel.
00:27 It will increase the cash flow to farmers. They will prosper.
00:31 There are three types of biofuels.
00:34 Like the sugarcane fields, the so-called first generation biofuels come from food crops
00:40 that are grown specifically to become fuel.
00:42 Then there's the second generation, which comes from agricultural waste like food scraps.
00:47 And finally there's the third generation, which is sourced from algae.
00:51 From field or garbage to cars, it is a cycle that's meant to create fewer total emissions
00:57 and less of a carbon footprint.
00:59 But that isn't always the case.
01:01 Biofuel production requires non-renewable resources such as land, water, fertilizer
01:09 which is often produced from petrochemicals, that is oil derived.
01:13 So when you count emissions from all that, for example even water pumping
01:18 if you're using an electric motor or a diesel motor, it involves emissions.
01:23 India hopes to capitalize on its ability to produce biofuels.
01:27 But with drought from climate change hurting sugar crops, deforestation
01:32 and the use of pesticides needed for such monocultures
01:36 some biofuels aren't as green as they seem.