Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has promised to ease the process of purchasing sugarcane-extracted ethanol for doping in petrol, a move that will help farmers get better price for the crop and cut the country's dependence on oil imports.

Pradhan, on a visit to the city to promote bidding for city-gas distribution licences, said, "For this, based on co-ordination, a way will be evolved. There is a provision of ethanol blending up to 10 per cent. In the coming days, there will be immense possibilities about use of ethanol. The farmers will also benefit from this in a major way."