Mill owners see shortfall in sugarcane production

Amritsar : Owing to the “slack” approach of the Punjab government, sugar mill owners are apprehensive that they will fall short of sugarcane by 25 to 30 per cent during the 2010-2011 crushing season. Consequently, a majority of the sugarcane mills in Punjab will be able to run for only three more months. With the crushing season having begun in mid-October, private and cooperative mills across the state will be receiving not more than 30 lakh tonnes of sugarcane to crush, experts believe. Last year’s production was about 35 lakh tonnes. Dr Inderjeet Singh, Agriculture Officer, Punjab, said the area under sugarcane cultivation in Punjab had been declining continuously and had gone down by another 35 per cent this year despite the fact that Punjab’s soil was very conducive for the cane crop. “At least 3.5 lakh acres of land should be put under sugarcane cultivation and nearly 1 crore metric tonne (MT) of sugarcane is required to run all sugar mills in the state,” he said.

There are 23 sugarmills in the state, out of which seven, running under the co-operative wing, have already closed down and the rest of the sugarmills (nine co-operative and seven private) are on the verge of closure. Though a proposal was mooted to lease the closed sugarmills under the BOOT (build, own, operate and transfer) system but it, too, could not materialise. Dr Harkamaljit Singh of the Applied Chemical Sciences and Technology Department, GND University, opined that had the state government begun on a positive note, the closed-down mills could have never been sick units that otherwise had a capacity to produce at least 2.4 MT of sugar. “For the present, nine working co-operative sugarmills, which have the capacity to produce 2.7 MT of sugar, will require at least 29 lakh MT of cane. Similarly, the seven private mills have the capacity to produce 4.9 MT of sugar. For this, the mills will need another lot of at least 51 lakh MT of cane. Where will the requisite cane produce come from?,” he asked. “The government should follow what other states like Tamil Nadu and Haryana have done to revitalise the sugarcane growth by extending subsidies on seeds, maintaining a "supportive” policy on sugarcane and sugar industry, raising SAP (state advisory price) from the present Rs 180 per quintal and giving proper attention to autumn plantation to yield maximum growth. Further, bagasse, the fibrous matter that remains after crushing, can be used as biofuel to generate power. This way these units will hardly depend upon the government for power supply. The Faridkot sugar mill is an example of this miracle,” he added.