Grand Challenge: Turning Agricultural Residues into a Scalable Biomass Economy

Grand Challenge Topic: Turning Agricultural Residues into a Scalable Biomass Economy Sector: Agriculture

Sub-sector: agri-residues, waste-management, energy

Code: GC_AGRI_25_03

Date of publishing: 06 March 2026

Last Updated: 06 March 2026

Overview

India generates over 750 million tonnes of agricultural biomass annually, yet most of this resource remains uncollected, underutilised, or burned in fields. The challenge is to build the infrastructure, markets, and financing platforms required to transform farm residues into a structured biomass commodity that supports clean energy, industrial decarbonisation, and rural income growth.

Categories of Challenges

1. Fragmented biomass supply

   - Agricultural residues distributed across millions of farms

   - Lack of organised aggregation networks
   

2. Absence of structured markets

   - No transparent biomass price discovery

   - Limited long-term offtake agreements with industrial users
   

3. Infrastructure deficits

   - Lack of biomass storage, warehousing, and pre-processing facilities
   

4. Financing barriers

   - Biomass supply chains not recognised as bankable infrastructure

   - Limited long-term capital for aggregation and logistics
   

5. Industrial integration challenges

   - Weak linkage between biomass supply chains and bioenergy / industrial demand
   

6. Environmental externalities

   - Crop residue burning due to lack of economic alternatives

Key Challenges being taken up

1. Developing organised biomass supply chains

   1. Aggregation systems with farmer cooperatives and FPOs

   2. Structured procurement models for biomass supply
      

2. Building biomass infrastructure platforms

   1. Storage hubs, logistics networks, and pre-processing facilities

      
      

3. Creating biomass commodity markets

   1. Transparent price discovery and long-term supply agreements

      
      

4. Establishing financing architecture

   1. Biomass commodity purchase funds

   2. Infrastructure investment platforms

      
      

5. Integrating biomass with industrial energy systems

   1. Linking biomass supply with biofuels and industrial decarbonisation

      
      
      
      

Workshops

• Last workshop in March 2026

FOAK Impact Projects

1. Regional Biomass Aggregation and Logistics Platform

   1. Establishment of organised biomass collection networks

   2. Integration of farmer cooperatives, aggregators, and logistics providers

   3. Development of regional storage and pre-processing hubs
      

2. Biomass Commodity Purchase and Market Platform

   1. Creation of a dedicated Biomass Commodity Purchase Fund

   2. Structured price discovery and long-term offtake agreements with industry
      

3. Integrated Biomass-to-Energy Demonstration Projects

   1. FOAK facilities for bio-CNG, green methanol, biomass fuels, or biochar

   2. Direct linkage between biomass supply chains and industrial energy demand
      

4. District-Level Biomass Economy Pilots

   1. Demonstration districts where biomass aggregation, logistics, financing, and industrial utilisation are integrated

Reference Material

• Coming soon.

Insights on Biomass

• Coming soon

National Leads

• Mr. Sanmit Ahuja, MD and CEO, Bharatia

Important Links

• Join the "Biomass Economy" working-group and participate in the grand challenge (use code GC_AGRI_25_03) | Click here to join

• Have a technology to introduce to India - get the solution validated via the ETV programme

• Want to contribute anything to the biomass economy sector development - then send us the suggestion via the working group.