UP's cane procuring policy might change

Prods mills to invest in mechanisation, research

The Uttar Pradesh government has hinted at making some changes in the sugarcane procurement policy, provided the sugar industry proactively adopt mechanisation and invest in research.

Kamran Rizvi, UP’s cane commissioner, said some young entrepreneurs from the sugar industry had come forward with the proposal of employing cane harvesters, and, that the government was ready to support it by tinkering with the procurement policy.

“We can make changes in the policy effective from next year (2013-14), if the mills propose to employ cane harvesters, even if on a pilot basis and in some purchase centres,” he added.

Cane harvesters speed up the harvest process and can facilitate supply of sugarcane to mills within hours against 2-3 days in manual harvesting followed in UP. This mechanisation is common in southern states.

The state is also persuading the industry to invest in sugarcane research for higher cane productivity and recovery rate.

While UP is India’s leading sugarcane producer, it is only the second largest sugar producer and has a low recovery rate of around 9.2 per cent, much below Maharashtra and other leading cane producing states.

“Research is an important topic and should not be left to the government alone. The state is willing to provide subsidy to the private sector for research in sugarcane areas,” Rizvi said while addressing ‘Sugar Tech 2012’ organised by CII here.

He suggested the mills could form consortiums for soil testing labs entailing tissue culture, biotech and conducting research in areas of quality seeds for higher yield and recovery.

He maintained the sugar companies needed to change focus from ‘profit to mills’ to ‘profit to farmers’ with mechanisation, research and soil testing.

Rizvi further applauded the state sugar industry for paying the country’s highest cane price to farmers even while weathering lower recovery rates and still making profit.

“Sugar mills are the engines of growth for rural India and not just profit centres for companies,” he averred.

There are 125 sugar mills in UP with 100 odd in the private-sector. During 2011-12, UP’s sugar output had touched 6.96 million tonnes (MT) against 5.88 MT last year.