Uttar Pradesh tops country in sugar production, beats Maharashtra

MEERUT: With sugar production at 54.96 lakh tons this crushing season (as of January 31), Uttar Pradesh has topped the charts in the country, trouncing Maharashtra, according to the data provided by Indian Sugar Mill Association (ISMA).
In all 446 sugar mills in the country have produced 141.12 lakh tons of sugar out of which 119 sugar mills in UP produced 54.96 lakh tons, followed by 34.54 lakh tons by 143 sugar mills in Maharashtra.Notably, Maharashtra had topped production last year with 70.99 lakh tons as on January 31 as compared to UP, which yielded only 52.86 lakh tons of sugar. This year, all states except UP have exhibited a slowdown in sugar production in 2019-2020.
Besides Maharashtra, sugar production also declined in states like Karnataka and Tamil Nadu till January 31. Karnataka’s 63 mills produced 27.94 lakh tons as against 33.76 lakh tons produced by 66 sugar mills last year in the same period. Similarly, Tamil Nadu that has 21 mills produced 2.05 lakh tons of sugar as compared to 2.86 in the corresponding period last year.
ISMA attributed the fall in sugar production in Maharashtra and Karnataka to decline in area under cane cultivation. In 2018, cane production was hurt by drought that forced farmers to curb cane planting, while flooding damaged crops in key growing regions in 2019 in these states. In fact, Maharashtra’s cane area has gone down by about 30% for 2019-20.
Based on satellite images taken in the latter part of June 2019, ISMA estimated cane area in UP at 23.60 lakh hectares, a marginal decrease of 2% from 2018. Thereby, sugar production for 2019-20 is estimated at 120 lakh tons.
Replacement by high yielding cane varieties in parts of UP in 2019 also led to an improvement in yield and sugar extraction, ISMA sources said.
UP cane minister Suresh Rana told TOI, “We expect production of 120 lakh tons of sugar this crushing season. The recovery rate is also above 11%, which is phenomenal.”
Uttar Pradesh Sugar Mill Association (UPSMA) general secretary Deepak Guptara said, “Among various factors that contributed to the better yield is the cultivation of ‘Wonder Variety 238’, which has a higher yield in terms of crop harvest as well as results in higher percentage of sugar content.”
According to sources in ISMA, “Sugar production estimated for 2019-20 crushing season is 260 lakh tons, which will be around 70 lakh tons less than the production in the last season. This means that countrywide there may be a 22% dip in sugar production for 2019-20 crushing season.”