12/10/2026
Indiaโs pathway to Sustainable Aviation Fuel must begin with the realities of Indian agriculture. ๐ฑโ๏ธ
As part of SAF Horizon: Building Capacity for a Just and Sustainable Energy Transition, ISMA, in partnership with the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB), conducted a farmer training programme to strengthen awareness of sustainability across Indiaโs emerging sugarcane-to-SAF value chain.
Over the past year, the ISMA ร RSB partnership has focused on building capacity for a credible and inclusive SAF ecosystem in India. The journey began with training mill management on sustainability principles and certification requirements, followed by a gap assessment to understand how existing sustainability frameworks align with the realities of Indian sugarcane cultivation, farming practices and the structure of Indiaโs sugar industry.
A sustainability framework cannot follow a one-size-fits-all approach across countries. Indiaโs agricultural landscape, predominantly smallholder farming systems and established farmer-mill relationships call for solutions that are informed by local realities and adapted to the Indian context. The gap assessment was therefore an important step towards identifying practical pathways for sustainability certification that work for India.
The farmer training brings this journey to its most crucial stakeholder: the Indian farmer. By building awareness of sustainable agricultural practices and their relevance to SAF certification, the initiative aims to place farmers at the heart of Indiaโs clean aviation transition.
As India explores the potential of sugarcane-based feedstocks for SAF, building a sustainable ecosystem means looking beyond the fuel itself to the people, practices and partnerships that make its production possible.
A just energy transition must not only be sustainable by design, but also relevant to the people who power it.
