Sugar industry in Maharashtra flags concern as individual awards for record tonnage find no eligible candidates
The Vasantdada Sugar Institute (VSI) awarded only six out of 12 planned sugarcane production awards, raising concerns over declining yields. Farmers failed to meet the required tonnage per hectare criteria, despite Maharashtra’s increased crushing capacity of 9.75 lakh tonnes per day. Experts warn low yields could impact mill operations and profitability in the coming seasons.
Only six of the 12 awards for sugarcane production by individual farmers were presented by the Vasantdada Sugar Institute (VSI) during its annual general body meeting in Pune Thursday, prompting industry insiders to flag concerns.
Given the sharp increase in the state’s cane-crushing capacity, it is worrying that the institute was unable to find farmers meeting the quality criteria to be eligible for the awards.
The VSI’s annual OoshBhushan awards are bestowed on individual farmers as well as sugar mills for technical and financial efficiency. Individual farmers qualify for the awards based on their tonnage per acre (total weight of produce per acre).
However, on Thursday, the institute announced that no farmer met the eligibility criteria for the awards which are given division-wise for Pre-seasonal, Suru and Ratoon cane. While the first two are plant cane grown from seedlings, the third one is grown from the stubble of an already harvested crop.
On Thursday, no awards were given for any of the categories in the North West Division. No one cleared the quality criteria set by VSI for the Suru and Pre-seasonal awards for the Middle Division. In the South West division, no farmer qualified for Suru plantation.
The VSI’s parameters indicate that to qualify for the production award for Suru crop, the farmer should be able to report production above 250 tonnes per hectare for their pre-seasonal crop. Similarly for the Suru and Ratoon crops, the per-hectare yield should be more than 200 tonnes and 175 tonnes, respectively. The farmer should have a holding of over 20 guntas or 0.5 acres. Also, the crop should not be grown for seed or fodder, i.e. it should be grown to be sold solely to mills.
This failure to get farmers to meet the production criteria comes as the state reports a rise in the crushing capacity of its mills which is now at 9.75 lakh tonnes per day. During 2021-22, the state had an aggregate crushing capacity of 8.01 lakh tonnes per day. Lower availability of cane would mean that the mills have to crush below their full capacity which would translate into financial loss.
“With the area of production being limited, the only way to ensure enough cane is to increase per-acre yield. Clearly, the absence of awardees for production shows that this is not happening in many areas,” said an industry insider.
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Source : The Indian Express
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