Sugarcane Department, Bihar Government

Sugarcane Department of Bihar

गन्ना विभाग, बिहार सरकार

गन्ना विभाग, बिहार सरकार का परिचय

(Introduction of Sugarcane Department)

The Department of Sugar was formed in order to devote special attention to the development of sugarcane and for establishment of sugar mills in the Co-operative Sector. The department of Sugarcane has been designed to supervise and co-ordinate of the working of the Co-operative Sugar Mills in the State, this Department has no direct contact with the public. Advantage of this Industry The North of Bihar is agro-climatically very suitable for producing good quality sugarcane with minimum inputs as compared to other states. This should be used to the best advantage of the state. Sugar Cane Research Institute, Pusa or other Sugar Institutions have to work together to develop new varieties of sugar cane to meet the climatic and soil requirements of Bihar. Their research and development must enable the increase the productivity of the sugar cane. A large number of existing sugar mills under the state run, Bihar Sugar Corporation had to be closed down due to old and obsolete equipment and inadequate skills, as modernization of the existing plant and equipment and retraining of personnel had not been undertaken by these sugar mills. Capacity of the existing remaining sugar mills is also very low compared to national average. I understand that the State Government has announced investment scheme for expansion of capacity of existing sugar industries, to setup new sugar industry and distilleries. This should make a favourable impact on the growth of the Sugar industry in Bihar and the scheme should be implemented in a time bound manner. What we need is to look at the total industry requirement and provision of incentives in the form of rebate in electricity duty/cess preferential tariff for co-generation of power, encouragement for manufacture of ethanol from molasses, waivers on administrative charges on the molasses consumption on distilleries and streamlining the procedure for getting allotment/ permits for sale of alcohol in Bihar. This revival of the sugarcane and sugar industry can definitely become a wealth and employment generator for Bihar. The present sugar cane production of the state is around 126,000 metric tonnes, out of which 100,000 metric tonnes is being sent to other states. I would recommend the creation of sugar co-operatives on the lines of the sugar co-operatives presently available in Maharashtra who can establish at least 10 sugar mills which can fully use the existing production of sugarcane for conversion of sugar. There also is a need to enhance the productivity of sugar to at least the level of national average of 70 MT per hectare. This will enable generation of increased income for 2.3 lakh sugarcane farmers. In the second phase we can also consider doubling the area under sugarcane progressively to 4.6 lakh hectares. This system will enable a coherent integration of sugarcane producers in the State and sugar mills leading to higher revenue for farmers. The funding for the new co-operative can come partially as Government grant, equity funds of co-operative members and bank credit through NABARD. In addition, there is a need to create an institution like Vasantdada Sugar Institute, Pune for carrying out continuous research for improving sugarcane productivity and improving the quality and quantity of sugar yield from sugar mills.