Pune: Sharad Pawar stresses on timely replacement of planting material to help sugar farmers

Pawar, who presided over the virtual meeting, also asked the industry to increase diversion towards ethanol to escape sugar glut which has proved to be a major problem for the sector.

This would be the second consecutive year when the annual general body meeting of this institute was held online due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Pawar cited production figures to ask the industry to stress on diversion towards ethanol. Nationally, Pawar said, the country would be producing around 305 lakh tonne of sugar and 34 lakh tonne of sugar would be diverted towards ethanol.

“Even if we manage to export 60 lakh tonne of sugar, there would be more than sufficient sugar in the country,” he said. Maharashtra is expected to produce 112 lakh tonne of the sweetener. “The industry needs to look at ethanol as an important alternative so as to ensure their economics do not go for a toss,” he said.

The Centre has been pushing for diversion towards ethanol for the sugar sector since 2018. Ethanol, the fuel additive, is produced as a byproduct during sugar production. A differential price system has been introduced for ethanol-based sugar on whether it is produced directly from cane juice/sugar syrup or from C molasses.

Most mills prefer generation of ethanol from B heavy molasses as it allows them the flexibility to extract sugar from juice and also get ethanol to sell at a premium. Major sugar-producing nations like Brazil and Australia have mills which can switch between ethanol or sugar depending on the price of the end product. Pawar urged the industry to go for such hybrid models.

Another area which the industry needs to work on is in regards to seed replacement. Pawar said, “Ideally, every farmer should change their planting material every three years.” Unlike other crops, farmers take repeated crops from a single plantation. Called ratoon, the second crop is grown from the stubble of the harvested crop. Most farmers take four to five ratoons as treated seed material is not easily available.

Pawar lamented that enough is not being done towards timely replacement of planting material. “At times cane, which is grown for the seed purpose, has to be sold off as fodder as there is no buyer for that,” he said.