Bihar cane industry has set the ambitious target of increasing the sugar cane production in the state to 315 lakh metric tonne (MT) over the next five cropping seasons, as per the draft proposal of the new state agriculture road map prepared for 2017-22 period.
Sugar cane production in the 2016-17 cropping season till March 31 was 182.34 lakh MT against 134.4 lakh MT produced in 2011-12, an increase of 47.94 lakh MT over five years during 2012-17. The draft proposal was discussed at the Kisan Samagam on Friday. Farmers also gave their suggestions for inclusion in the final draft of the agriculture road map.
Achieving the target set by the cane industry might be an uphill task on the face of it, but the department sources said it was achievable because the cane production (measured in terms of MT/per hectare) in the state had increased over the last five years. According to them, the trend regarding various aspects of sugar cane production as reflected during the second agriculture road map (2012-17) has been positive. The Nitish Kumar government had rolled out the first agriculture road map for 2008-12.
Incidentally, the area under sugar cane cultivation was 2.49 lakh hectare in 2011-12. It increased to 2.64 lakh hectare by "sustained motivational campaigns" in 2017, said a cane department official, adding the aim is to further increase the cane cultivation area to 3.50 lakh hectare by 2022. "The increase in the area of cane cultivation will lead to proportionate increase in its overall production by the end of the third agriculture road map ending March 31, 2022," the official said.The official said sugar cane productivity was 53.35 tonne per hectare in 2012, but has increased to 69.06 tonne per hectare by March this year. The third agriculture road map (2017-22) has envisaged the sugar cane productivity of the state to be 90 tonne per hectare.
In tune with the trends perceived over the last five years, the cane department thinks the sugar mills would be able to produce 7.37 lakh MT of sugar in the state. The production of sugar till March this year was 5.24 lakh MT. The increasing trend could also be gauged from the fact that the sugar production in the state was 6.0 lakh MT during 2015-16. At present, there are 11 sugar mills in operational stage in the state.