Sugarcane growers in India are facing unprecedented uncertainty. Even as crushing for the new sugar year from October is set to start, mills owe them roughly Rs 3,000 crore for cane bought in 2013-14. But every crisis, as the cliché goes, presents an opportunity for re-evaluation.
Such an exercise in sugar should, however, focus more on sugarcane, if only to recognise the unrealised potential of a much-misunderstood crop.
Many view sugarcane as a water-guzzler. Its water requirement of 1,500-2,000 mm is nearly twice that of rice, and four times that of wheat.
But sugarcane grows over 11-12 months, as against 4-5 months for the latter. Also, the best Punjab farmer cannot harvest beyond 5-6 tonnes of wheat and 8-9 tonnes of paddy a hectare. In contrast, cane yields aren’t below 40 tonnes for the worst Uttar Pradesh grower, while averaging 105 tonnes in Tamil Nadu. Sugarcane, in other words, uses less water per day and even less for every unit weight of biomass produced.
The reason: It is a rare crop — in a list that includes maize, sorghum and a few grasses — exhibiting “C4 photosynthesis”, a more efficient mechanism of deploying solar energy to convert atmospheric carbon dioxide and water into plant matter. This is significant considering that scientists have sought to genetically modify rice, which uses the more common “C3” photosynthetic pathway, into a C4 plant. The latter is seen to potentially yield 50 per cent more grain and double water-use efficiency.
When Mother Nature has already made sugarcane a prolific biomass producer — its green top-leaves supply much of the UP farmers’ fodder needs during winter and spring — and highly efficient at carbon sequestration, it raises the question: Are we doing enough to reap the bounty of this crop cultivated in five million hectares across India? The answer, sadly, is no, thanks to our obsession with sugar, which makes up hardly 10 per cent of the cane in terms of recovery during processing.
The biggest constituent in sugarcane, about 30 per cent by weight, is bagasse: the fibrous residue remaining after extraction of the juice and a rich source of biofuel. Not many know that sugar is an industry that generates its own energy, not only to meet captive consumption requirements but also to supply to the grid. This again has to do with biomass, which is nothing but stored energy from photosynthesis that gets released as heat on burning.
The high-pressure boilers used in modern sugar mills can generate around 130 kilowatt-hours of electricity from every tonne of cane (that is, 300 kg bagasse or 660 kg steam). After deducting 25 units of in-process consumption by the mill and another 11-12 units of auxiliary consumption in the boilers/ turbo-generators, about 95
The high-pressure boilers used in modern sugar mills can generate around 130 kilowatt-hours of electricity from every tonne of cane (that is, 300 kg bagasse or 660 kg steam). After deducting 25 units of in-process consumption by the mill and another 11-12 units of auxiliary consumption in the boilers/ turbo-generators, about 95 units is exportable to the grid. It is strange that when people discuss non-conventional energy, they mainly speak of solar, wind, micro-hydel and power from rice husk, mustard stems or cotton stalks, while only incidentally referring to bagasse-based cogeneration. This, even after sugar mills have installed some 2,700 MW of grid-interactive capacity producing real and reliable power. Balrampur Chini Mills, for instance, generated 75 crore units and exported 55 crore units valued at Rs 229 crore to the UP Power Corporation in 2013-14.
At 70 tonnes, the average one-hectare Indian cane farmer’s yield can contribute 6,500-odd units of exportable electricity — well above the annual consumption of most urban middle-class households. Multiply that by five million hectares and you get an idea of the actual potential.
Yet, sugar mills in UP and Tamil Nadu are paid Rs 3.7-4.2 for every unit supplied, as compared to tariffs of Rs 7.5-12.8 (plus a host of gratuitous subsidies) under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission. So much for promoting genuine renewable energy!
The same indifference can be seen with alcohol produced from molasses: the leftover juice after extraction of the maximum possible sugar from three cycles of boiling and crystallisation. The non-recoverable sugar in the molasses is what gets fermented into alcohol. Why not give mills the flexibility to ferment cane juice directly or at least after the first/ second stages of crystallisation? Given that mills are now holding sugar stocks equivalent to almost four months’ consumption, shouldn’t they be making more alcohol? With direct fermentation, they can produce up to 72 litre from every tonne of cane, against only 11 litre through molasses.
This is where policy matters. Today, the Centre does not have a robust ethanol-blending programme. While in Brazil, ethanol is used for either 25 per cent doping with petrol or as 100 per cent hydrous spirit to power flex-fuel vehicles, we aren’t properly implementing even 5 per cent here. Worse, oil marketing companies are paying an ex-distillery price of Rs 38 a litre for ethanol, which is way below what refineries were until recently getting on petrol. A unique case of biofuel subsidising fossil fuel!
State governments, likewise, treat sugarcane as a sector simply to be milked. For example, take a 180 ml bottle of ordinary rum or brandy with 42.5 per cent alcohol content costing Rs 80 at the liquor vend. In terms of alcohol, this rate translates into Rs 1,000 or so per litre, even after deducting all manufacturing and distribution costs. But Rs 35-40 is all that mills realise on rectified spirit. The difference is largely taxes.
If this weren’t enough, the UP government “reserves” 34 per cent of molasses production by mills for supplying to country liquor manufacturers. So, even while cane farmers don’t get paid, desi daru makers are guaranteed subsidised molasses. In 2013-14, the revenue to states from excise totaled Rs 95,000 crore, the bulk of it from molasses-based liquor. Clearly, they wouldn’t have earned this without farmers growing sugarcane: After all, how much of imported Scotch or Absolute Vodka can our beverage corporations sell?
Sugarcane is today unfortunately a victim of vested interests — from pseudo-environmentalists (they should be told about C4 carbon fixation) and liquor makers (the main beneficiaries of cheap molasses) to state governments (for whom it is a convenient cash cow) and mills (who pretend to produce little other than sugar). The ultimate sufferer here is the one-hectare farmer, whose 70 tonnes of cane annually contributes 7,000 kg of sugar, 6,500 units of exportable electricity and 770 litre of alcohol to the national economy. He deserves better. We need to really understand the worth of the wonder energy crop he is producing.