Some very hungry cows may rescue India from a giant sugar glut

India’s second-biggest sugar producing region is facing an unusual situation: Attractive returns in the cattle-feed market are prompting farmers to sell sugar cane as fodder.

That may cause sugar output in Maharashtra to drop below an earlier estimate of 6.44 million tons for the year starting in October, said Shekhar Gaikwad, the state’s sugar commissioner. He declined to give a new forecast. That compares with 10.7 million tons produced a year earlier, he said.

“A lot of cane got cut for fodder in the last one month,” Gaikwad said by phone. “Farmers are more than willing to sell cane for cattle feed