A sweet deal for mills and farmers

The story of a cane variety that has transformed the fortunes of Uttar Pradesh’s sugar industry

along with the cane on the raised beds and harvested by February-march. “Last February, I harvested 40 quintals of potato on my one-acre plot under autumn-planted Co 0238. It more than made up for the extra three-month duration for the cane,” says Chauhan. He expects his about-to-be harvested 20-feet tall cane — normal cane grows to 10-12 feet — to easily yield 150 quintals a bigha or 187.5 tonnes per hectare.

Even the average reported yields of 80 tonnes hectare for Co 0238 work out 15-20 tonnes more than that for COS 767, till recently the most widely cultivated cane variety in UP till recently. At the SAP of Rs 315/quintal, the additional income to farmers from that comes to Rs 47,250-Rs 63,000 per hectare. Mills, too, would gross a revenue of Rs 420 from producing 12 kg of sugar from one quintal of cane at Rs 35/kg, as against Rs 350 from 10 kg earlier. It gives some leeway, then, to pay the SAP, which wasn’t possible with 9.25-9.5 per cent recovery rates.

Co 0238 couldn’t also have come at a better time. India’s sugar production this season may fall to 210-220 lt, compared to 252 lt for 2015-16, on the back of lower output in Maharashtra (from 85 to 50-51 lt), Karnataka (41 lt to 23-24 lt). Uttar Pradesh could, however, see an increase from 68.5 lt to 78-80 lt. That, together with higher ex-factory realisations, sugar recoveries, cane yields and SAP, is something the state’s millers and growers certainly wouldn’t mind — after four torrid years and ahead of Assembly elections.

Oinam Anand Farmers with 20-ft high sugarcane stalks of Co 0238 variety in a field.

Oinam Anand Chilli and cauliflower being inter-cropped with autumn-planted cane.

Oinam Anand A farmer brings his trolley of sugarcane at a mill in Bijnor, UP.