Significantly, production in 2016-17 was the lowest in a decade in the state due to lower availability of sugarcane following two consecutive drought years. About 150 sugar mills crushed 372 lakh tonne of sugarcane during 2016-17, less than half of 743 lakh tonne crushed in the previous year. Last year, the number of sugar mills in operation came down from 177 as 27 mills could not operate due to cane unavailability.