Heavy rains may hit sugarcane crop in Maharashtra

Heavy rains during the last fortnight have severely affected sugarcane crops in Maharashtra, resulting in massive losses to the state's sugarcane industry. Sangli, Pune, Kolhapur, Satara, Nanded and Parbhani in the state have been the worst-hit.

Among the leading sugarcane producing areas in Maharashtra, Kolhapur's share is 12-lakh tonnes, while Sangli and Satara produce 7-lakh and 5.90-lakh tonnes respectively.

The area under sugarcane has also shown a decline in the current Kharif season. Till June, total area under sugarcane cultivation declined by 2.4 per cent at 4.47-million hectares as compared to 4.58 million hectare during the corresponding period last year, according to an initial report prepared on Kharif sowing by Karvy Comtrade.

Farmers are expected to shift from sugarcane to other remunerative crops due to the drastic fall in sugar prices in the current season ending September.

"Sugar prices witnessed wide fluctuations in the recent past. After scaling a high of Rs 1,400 per quintal three months ago, its prices slipped to Rs 1,100 before stabilising at Rs 1,300 per quintal," a dealer with Karvy Comtrade, J Shah, said here.

Record production this year at around 28-million tonnes and high carry-forward stocks for the next season is also a matter of concern for farmers, the report said.

Out of 185 sugar manufacturing mills, nearly 130 will still be able to get into the crushing season due to sufficient rainfall in other drought-prone areas of Maharashtra and are expected to yield about 5-6 million tonnes of finished sugar. Due to lower price realisation, Andhra Pd from turmeric to other crops like soybean and chillies. At present, around 6,000-7,000 hectares of land have been brought under turmeric, down by 30 per cent compared to last year's coverage of 10,000 hectares in Nizamabad.

Infact, the early on-set and severe rainfall across the coastal regions of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh has not proved beneficial to Kharif sowing this season, due to unequal distribution of rainfall.

India is predominantly an agrarian economy and largely depends upon the south-west monsoon for its agriculture. In agriculture terminology, the season from June to September is popularly called as Kharif, which commences with the onset of the South-west monsoon in India.

Kharif season contributes 60 per cent of India's agricultural production. During this period, farmers, traders and others related to the agriculture sector, closely monitor its progress and distribution through India.

"Even though the south-west monsoon has covered nearly 90 per cent part of India, the average under different crops is lagging when compared to last year following unequal distribution of rainfall," dealers said.