Economics of on-farm ethanol production using sweet sorghum .

摘要

Scope and method of study. Specific objective of the study was to evaluate the feasibility of production of ethanol on-farm using sweet sorghum as primary feed stock. The study would help evaluate the possible scenarios, requirements and difficulties while putting this concept in practice in an economical way. The study included analysis through OSU Enterprise Budget software and Harvester software. The parameters were evaluated for 500, 1000 and 1500 acres harvested with low, medium and high inputs.; Findings and conclusions. The study involved many assumptions based on the expert opinion and author's judgments. The on-farm ethanol production is an economically feasible concept through proper land size selection, harvester machine efficiency, sweet sorghum yield, and investment in appropriate equipments. It can be said confidently that to maximize the returns to the investment, a group of farmers should form a cooperative, making mere land and investments available. The investment and returns ratio is not lucrative at lower land size.