The Uttarakhand government is planning to conduct a diagnostic study of its five sugar mills and decided to set up two tissue culture laboratories for better seed varieties.
A proposal for conducting diagnostic study of ailing sugar mills has already been prepared. “We have sent the proposal to the finance department for its approval,” said a government official.
The diagnostic study would be conducted by National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories Ltd which is also a leading agency for conducting such diagnosis.
The estimate for conducting diagnosis is roughly around Rs 3 lakh per sugar factory, the official added. Old and outdated machines, excessive inventory, heavy sugar stocks and interest burdens are stated to be some of the reasons behind the sickness of sugar industry.
One of the big reason behind the sickness is of hefty cane price which reached Rs 210-215 last year. “Due to higher cane price, the arrears have also mounted,” said the official.
Meanwhile, the government has also decided to set up two tissue culture laboratories one at Kitcha in Udhamsingh Nagar district and another at Imlikheda area of Haridwar district with a cost of Rs 1.3 crore each. The laboratories would help prepare better seed varieties of sugarcane which would also be disease free. Ozone Biotech has also been appointed as consultant for setting up the two tissue culture laboratories.
Experts said the tissue culture technique in sugarcane can be used for rapid multiplication of newly developed high yielding, high sugar, disease resistant varieties and rejuvenation of outstanding varieties under cultivation.
The vegetative propagation of sugarcane through seed cane cuttings is cumbersome requiring larger quantities of vegetative seed material and seed multiplication rate is too low, needing about ten years for a new variety to be released for cultivation and cover larger areas in the field subsequently.
With tissue culture technique, it is possible to release a variety within five years and propagate it quickly in the field. The productivity of the important varieties can also be maintained and improved for their longer life span in the field.
