Faced with a severe shortage of sugarcane during the present sugar season (October 2008-September 2009), sugar mills in Karnataka have launched intensive cane development programmes to ensure adequate supply for the next sugar season, beginning October 2009.
About 16 million tonnes of cane will be available to the industry this year, a drop of close to 40 per cent compared to the previous year. In some parts of the state, the shortage is up to 70 per cent, according to industry sources.
As part of its efforts to improve the situation for next sugar season, the South Indian Sugar Mills’ Association (SISMA) has decided to impose certain tough measures on its member factories from next year to facilitate adequate supply of cane for all. Sugar mills have been asked not to advance cane crushing season and adhere to normal stipulated time frame. Mills in North Karnataka will commence crushing in November and in south from September. A written communication has been sent to all member factories to follow its guidelines strictly.
“A major reason for the shortage of quality cane for the current year was advancement of crushing by many mills in the state to August 2008. This not only led to a shortage of cane but resulted in lower recovery of sugar by about 1 per cent as mills had crushed immature cane. The yield per hectare dropped to 25-30 tonnes as against an average of 40 tonnes. However, from next year we have told mills to follow the normal crushing pattern,” an SISMA official said. During 2008-09, 210,000 hectares are under sugarcane in Karnataka.
Next year, it is expected to rise by 15 per cent.
In order to encourage farmers to grow more cane, many sugar mills in Karnataka have announced an advance cane price for next year already. Even as the Centre is yet to announce a statutory minimum price for sugarcane, mills have declared their price which ranges from Rs 1,100 crore to Rs 1,300 per tonne and an additional Rs 250 per tonne towards harvest and transport charges. Some of the mills that have announced their cane price include Bannari Amman, Chamundeshwari and Shamanur Sugars.
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Many mills in the state are distributing good quality cane seeds to farmers which will result in production of good quality sugar for them. “Our plan is to encourage farmers to return to cultivation of sugarcane. This will help us in ensuring adequate supply of cane for the next season. If we do not take measures like these, we will be left with much lesser cane next year compared to what we got this year,” industry sources said.
With the new measures being taken, the industry body expects to generate at least 18 million tonnes of sugarcane during the next sugar season.
Meanwhile, for the current season, out of the estimated availability of 16.5 million tonnes of cane this year, mills in Karnataka have already crushed 14.8 million tonnes and produced 1.5 million tonnes of sugar at an average recovery of 10.3 per cent. Mills are set to declare closure of the present crushing season by early April as nearly 40 of the 50 mills that were operational have wound up their crushing operations due to a shortage of cane. Under normal circumstances, cane crushing goes on till June.
According to SISMA, the situation this year worsened due to addition of four new mills in the state and capacity expansion by many existing mills.