Politics Insight News Without Politics
(Pi Bureau)
Virendra Singh Rawat
Business Writer
In the ongoing 2017-18 sugarcane crushing season, the state farmers have already been paid over Rs 1500 crore even as sugar mills have produced nearly a million tonnes (MT) of the sweetener.
UP is India’s top sugar producer and is eyeing total sugar output of 11 MT, roughly 25 percent more than last year level of 87.5 MT.
According to UP cane and sugar commissioner Sanjay R Bhoosreddy, so far about 100 sugar mills had started crushing and the remaining 19-20 mills are likely to function by next week. Timely harvest of sugarcane allows farmers to vacate their fields and sow wheat, which adds to their total profitability and quick turnaround as well.
On October 26, the Yogi Adityanath government had increased sugarcane state advised price (SAP) by Rs 10 per quintal. With higher acreage, remunerative cane price and better quality of seeds, the state is targetting total sugar output of about 110 MT and consolidated farmers’ payments to touch Rs 30,000 crore against Rs 25,000 crore last year.
In the current season, the UP sugarcane acreage is estimated at 22.99 lakh hectares (LH), up 11.20 percent of 2.45 LH, compared to 20.54 LH in 2016-17. This year, the state sugarcane department had distributed 0.60 MT of high quality seed to farmers to improve productivity and sugar recovery.
Sugarcane and sugar sector supports about 4 million farmers households and clocks total direct economy of about Rs 35,000 crore annually. Apart from sugar, various other byproducts viz. ethanol, jiggery, pressmud, khandasari etc are also extracted during the process of producing sugar and used in industries, such as liquor manufacturing, furniture, cardboard etc.
