Bumper Indian sugarcane harvest likely on higher acreage, conducive weather

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Amid the sugar industry clamouring for a free export policy next season starting October, the latest official data show that sugarcane acreage has gone up by 4.5 per cent this year which will help mills with higher availability when they start crushing operation for the 2024-25 sugar season. Besides, the current heat wave in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra has, so far, ensured a very good and disease-free crop.

According to the latest sowing data of sugarcane from different States, the total area has been reported at 54.21 lakh hectares (lh) until June 7, up from 51.88 lh in the year-ago period. “We have taken the help of remote sensing technology along with the physical survey of cane area this year and segregated the plant (first crop) from ratoon (second crop), which was earlier never done. This will help us arrive at a realistic estimate of sugarcane production as yield varies in each type,” said an official source.

Production target

The government will release the sugarcane acreage data along with kharif sowing update later this month, the official said. The yield of ratoon crop is 10-20 per cent lower than the plant crop. The targetted production of sugarcane for 2024-25 is 470 mt against estimate output of 442.53 mt in 2023-24.

Jitender Hooda, a farmer in Shamli district of Uttar Pradesh, said the crop is in excellent condition this year. “Due to the excessive heat, the weed problem has not surfaced, which has saved our cost on herbicides. The only issue will be rains and if the red rot disease is checked, sugarcane yield this year may be one of the highest,” Hooda said.

From June 2022, the government put sugar export under the restricted category, which can be shipped only with the a permit. In current season, the government has not allowed any export, except to a few countries through the National Cooperative Exports Limited (NCEL) on diplomatic requests.

India’s sugar exports were at 6.3 mt in 2022-23 season, 11 mt in 2021-22, 7 mt in 2020-21, 5.9 mt in 2019-20 and 3.8 mt in 2018-19.