Uttar Pradesh is all set to overtake Maharashtra and become the top producer of sugar, going by the latest projection of sugar production released by the Indian Sugar Mill Association, an all India body representing sugar mills from all sugar producing States.
Target set
ISMA has set the target of 85 lakh tonne production of sugar in UP, which is 40 % of the total production target in the country. Last year sugar production in UP was 68.40 lakh tonne.
Due to a variety of reasons, including lowering water level and drought-like situation, sugar production in Maharashtra has gone down from 84.24 lakh tonne in 2015-16 to 46 lakh tonne, which is a little over half of last year production in the State.
Sources in the State Cane Department said it was almost after a decade that UP overtook Maharashtra in annual sugar production. In 2005-6, the State produced 57.84 lakh tonne sugar whereas Maharashtra 51.97 lakh tonne.
After that it was Maharashtra which topped the sugar production chart in the country. In 2014-15 the State produced 105 lakh tonne while for UP the figure was 71 lakh tonne.
The UP Cane Department officials said such a high production of sugar was made possible due to increase of sugar recovery in sugarcane from around 9 per cent till last year to more than 10 per cent this year. They said the impressive sugar production in the State should result in timely payments to cane farmers.
Hard work
Confirming the growth in sugar production in UP, the cane commissioner of the State, Vipin Kumar Dwivedi, told the media that it was due to the hard work of the State’s cane farmers and right implementation of the State government’s policies that UP was set to become the top producer of sugar in the country.
“The total production of sugar in UP is expected to be more than 81 lakh tonne. We are looking forward to achieve the target of 85 lakh tonne this year,” Mr. Dwivedi said.
Deepak Gupta, secretary general of the UP Sugar Mills Association, said “while 35 lakh sugarcane farmers deserve special mention, the State government played a crucial key role in implementation of the plans.”
