New Delhi: The diversion of surplus broken rice to produce ethanol is not impacting food inflation, as ethanol production is allowed only after maintaining adequate buffer stocks and meeting the requirements under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and other welfare schemes, the Parliament was informed on Wednesday. She also stated that the inclusion of maize as a feedstock for ethanol production has helped to provide an assured market and better prices to the country’s farmers growing the crop. "To maintain feed availability, the poultry feed industry is also adopting other domestically available ingredients such as rice bran, broken rice, bajra and wheat offal," she added. The minister further stated that in the ethanol supply year 2024-25, which ended in November, around 13.1 million tonnes of maize was used for ethanol production, while the quantity of surplus rice with the Food Corporation of India (FCI) was around 3.18 million tonnes. India produces ethanol from rice, maize and sugarcane, with maize accounting for the largest share in recent years, surpassing sugarcane.