Productivity has to be increased to meet sugar demand

COIMBATORE: With demand for white sugar in India estimated at 30 million tons (MT) by 2025, sugarcane production has to be increased to 452 MT, with 60 per cent drawal and 11 per cent recovery, a top official of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) said on Sunday.

Since area under sugarcane is not expected to increase from 4.3 million hectares to reach targeted production,the national average productivity has to increase to 105 tons per hectare.

A major reason for low productivity is unpredictable water availability, as sugarcane consumed 250 litres of water to produce one kg of cane, Dr P Subbiah, Registrar, TNAU said.

He quoted a World Bank review, which said current demand for water is 13 per cent for industry and power, four per cent for community and 83 per cent for irrigation.But in 2025 water availability for irrigation was expected to be only 73.3 per cent, he said

Stating that sugar industry, the second largest after tex textile, and worth rs.30,000 crore,contributes around six per cent to agriculrural GDP, he said it represented the principle livelihood of 35 million farmers and 50 million workers.

India ranked second after Brazil,both in terms of sugarcane area and production and in 2007,sugarcane was cultivated in 4.1 million hectare to produce 355 MT. In the last 10 years, production was fluctuating between 253 MT and 355 MT, he said.

National Average Productivity was 70 tons per hectare,with some places as low as 40 tonnes. Though Tamil Nadu recorded the highest productivity of 105 tons, recovery was only 9.6 per cent after Maharashtra at 11.6 per cent, he said.

Under the prevailing water-shortage condition, there was an urgent need to develop proper water management practices to avoid wastage and increase efficiency, he said.

source: ET