Early indications from the sugar commissioner’s office have pointed to record sugarcane area in Maharashtra for the cane crushing season of 2022-23. The state, as per estimates by the sugar mills, will have 14.85 lakh hectares of cane available for crushing. Mills will crush 1,343 lakh tonnes of cane and produce 138 lakh tonnes of sugar with 12 lakh tonnes of it being diverted for production of ethanol.
The cane crushing season of 2021-22 for Maharashtra was marked by the most cane ever crushed and sugar produced. As many as 200 mills had ended up crushing 1,320.31 lakh tonnes of cane and produced 137.27 lakh tonnes of sugar. The crushing season had lasted for 173 days, which was the first time in the past 10 years that the season had extended well into June. Mills had also crushed 100 lakh tonnes of unregistered cane.
This was mainly because of farmers had not registered their cane with any mills and instead based their decision on price announced by mills at the last moment. Unregistered cane had produced logistical problems and Shekhar Gaikwad, the sugar commissioner, had to intervene to ensure no cane remains standing in the fields.
According to a copy of the estimates shown to The Indian Express, districts in Marathawada have reported good growth in terms of cane area. The eight districts in Marathawada reported 3.91 lakh hectares of area under cane. Last season, Marathwada had reported 3.39 lakh hectares of cane area. While area under cane has remained more or less constant in the traditional cane belt of Kolhapur, Pune, Satara, Sangli and Solapur, Marathwada has reported increased area.
Ample availability of water in the dams has seen farmers preferring cane over other crops. Regular payment, set mechanism for transportation and harvesting are the major reasons why farmers have gone for cane. Farmers in Marathwada are increasingly going for commercial crops like cotton, soyabean and cane in preference to pulses.
In order to avoid last minute rush, the sugar commissioner has launched an app that will allow farmers to register their cane area. The commissioner’s office hopes this will bring order and transparency to the process.