Indian sugar mills association

Drought-resistant Indonesian sugarcane may rescue farmer here

Date:	01 Dec 2015

Source:	The Economic Times

Reporter:	Jayashree Bhosale

News ID:	4997

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PUNE: Scientists of a sugar research institute headed by Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar will soon visit Indonesia for the second time to study a genetically modified drought-resistant variety of sugarcane, which may provide a lifeline to the distressed cooperative industry in drought-hit Maharashtra.

Pawar, a former Union agriculture minister whose political base is closely tied to the interests of the sugar industry, told ET a team from the Pune-based Vasantdada Sugar Institute (VSI) will visit sugarcane fields near Surabaya in Indonesia from December 8 to 11.

"The director general of Icar (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) had convened a meeting in Delhi in this context...As the varieties are drought resistant, we are keen to introduce them in India with due regard to Indian legislation, Supreme Court judgements, etc," said Pawar.

A team of scientists from the institute has already made a visit to Indonesia in this regard. "When our team visited the fields, the crop, which was eight months old and had not been irrigated for four months, was standing lush green," said Shivaji Deshmukh, director general, VSI. The GM varieties of sugarcane that have caught the institute's attention have not yet been released for cultivation by farmers. Currently, no country in the world produces sugar from GM sugarcane.

According to a report by the United States Department of Agriculture, Indonesia — one of the largest sugar importers in the world — has given food safety approval to three GM varieties of sugarcane.

The prevailing drought in Maharashtra has once again triggered concerns about the water-guzzling cane crop. The reservoirs in the state have just 47 per cent live storage as on Monday, compared to 66 per cent a year ago and 78 per cent in 2013. This may lead to a substantial reduction in the area under sugarcane cultivation in the next sugar season, industry experts said.

Sugarcane crop, which is grown on just 4 per cent of the gross cropped area in the state, accounts for 71.5 per cent of the total water usage for agriculture, according to the latest report by the Commission for Agricultural Cost and Prices.

In contrast, pulses account for just 1.3 per cent of the total water usage while the gross crop area is 15.2 per cent. A high-level committee on balanced regional development, headed by economist Vijay Kelkar, had pointed out that by adopting 100 per cent drip irrigation, one hectare of sugarcane will sustain 12.5 hectares of tur (arhar) crop by providing protective microirrigation. This will reflect in doubling the productivity of tur to 1,500 kg a hectare, according to the committee.

There is also a demand to limit area under sugarcane in a given river basin.

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