Good returns likely to boost sugarcane acreage

Date 04-Jun-2010        Source The Financial Express        Reporter Reuters        News Id 169

Mumbai: Record prices offered by Indian millers may prompt farmers to expand sugarcane acreage by a fifth in 2010-11, enhancing output by an estimated 30 percent on higher yields, industry players said. Limited availability of cane in major producing areas and record sugar prices saw a stiff battle among millers for cane procurement in 2009-10, lifting prices to fresh highs. The government had set price at Rs 129.84 per 100 kg for 2009-10, but scarcity forced millers to pay as much as Rs 260, the highest ever, to farmers. The price has been reset and raised by 7.1% to Rs 139.12 for 2010-11 season. The cane for the 2010-11 crushing season has already been planted and initial estimate has shown a 25% rise in plantation, said Prakash Naiknavare, managing director, Maharashtra State Cooperative Sugar Factories Federation. This year area has risen to about 1 million hectares from 800,000 hectares last year. Rajendra Chavan, sugar commissioner of Maharashtra, the biggest producer, is expecting more farmers to switch to cane in 2010-11 season. After Maharashtra, northern UP and Karnataka in south are the other big producers of the sweetner and together produce more than 70% of country’s total output. Most of the farmers in Maharashtra cultivate cane from June, when monsoon rains hit the country, though those with abundant water reserves cultivate the crop during winter as well. But in Uttar Pradesh, most of cane planting takes place between February to May and rest in September-October. Uttar Pradesh too is seen raising acreage by 14%. Acreage is estimated to increase by 256,000 hectares to 2.04 million hectares in 2010-11 season from 1.78 million hectares last year, Mahendra Prakash, deputy commissioner at state’s Sugar Commissionerate office said. Kishore Kumar Sheel, who traditionally takes cane crop in Bijnor in UP, said he raised area by a hectare to 10 hectares this year. Better prospects seems to be in the offing for farmers, as the government has already increased support price, he said