The park, coming up at Mandya, will be developed over the next five years
Even as the sugar industry is competing with jaggery makers for a larger share of cane for their mills, the Karnataka government has initiated steps to popularise new sugar-rich cane varieties suitable for jaggery making and increase productivity of jaggery units.
In what could be the first of its kind initiative in the country, the University of Agriculture Sciences, Bangalore, is setting up a jaggery park at Mandya, the country’s fourth largest jaggery market. The aim of this initiative is to identify new sugar-rich varieties and encourage farmers to adopt scientific methods to increase production.
The agriculture ministry has sanctioned the project for setting up of the jaggery park as part of the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) under the auspices of Zonal Research Station of UAS at VC Farm in Mandya. The park will be developed over the next five years starting 2009-10. Under the project, farmers will be imparted training on scientific practices in jaggery production.
D Rajanna, project coordinator, jaggery park, said, “The existing varieties of sugarcane in and around Mandya are not suitable for jaggery production because of low recovery. The average recovery of these varieties is below 10 per cent. Farmers at present do not follow scientific methods to make jaggery. We will train small and marginal farmers on adopting scientific methods to produce jaggery hygienically.”
The Centre has sanctioned Rs 8 crore for the current year to set up the jaggery park on a pilot basis on 500 acres in Mandya. In the first phase, around 150 farmers in select villages of Mandya, Mysore and Chamarajanagar districts will be enrolled to plant sugar-rich varieties of sugarcane from January 2010, Rajanna told Business Standard at Krishi Mela, organised by UAS, Bangalore.
As part of the project, the VC Farm has identified varieties suitable for jaggery like CO-92005 and CO-86032, which have an average recovery of 12 per cent sugar.
Under this project, it is envisaged to increase the productivity and adoption of non-chemical methods to produce jaggery.
Currently, 2,000 jaggery units are operational in and around Mandya, which produce an average 20,000 quintals per day. Through this project, it is planned to double the daily production over a period of five years, he said.
For the current year, around 70,000 hectares is under sugarcane cultivation in Mandya, about 12 per cent less than last year. Jaggery prices are ruling around Rs 3,000 per quintal.
He said the VC Farm had tied up with the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, to design and develop farmer cane crushers to enhance crushing capacity.
The park will also showcase underroof technologies developed by various sugar research institutes from across the country for the benefit of farmers.
