Mumbai: Sugar output in Maharashtra, India's biggest producer, will probably decline 22% next year as the worst monsoon since 2009 threatens to shrivel crops, a government official said. "Outpur may drop to 7 million tonnes (mt) in the harvesting season starting 1 October from 9 mt this year," Vijay Singhal, Maharashtra's sugar commissioner.   Sugar cane production will fall to 60 mt next year from 77 mt this year, he said.  

Dry weather in some parts of the state are forcing farmers to divert cane to fodder, he said.