DISCUSSING PROBLEMS: Union Minister for Agriculture Sharad Pawar (centre) having a word with Minister for Science and Technology Ramachandra Gowda at a seminar in Bangalore on Saturday. — Photo: K. Gopinathan

Bangalore: With the entry of China in the international sugar market in a big way coupled with stiff competition from Brazil and other countries, sugarcane growers and the sugar industry in the country will have a bleak future unless long and short term measures are taken, Union Minister for Agriculture, Public Distribution and Consumer Affairs Sharad Pawar said here on Saturday.

Inaugurating a two-day national seminar on mechanised cultivation of sugarcane and safety-quality management in the sugar industry, Mr. Pawar said the situation called for a multi-pronged approach to face the challenge. The meet was organised by the Institution of Engineers (India), the Commissioner for Cane Development and Director of Sugar, the Indian Council for Agricultural Research and others.

Mr. Pawar said the Union Government should bear the storing and stacking charges and both the Centre and the States should relax their taxes on sugar for the survival of the cane growers and the industry. With the sugar production around 240 lakh tonnes this year and a buffer of 40 lakh tonnes, the country will have 90 lakh tonnes of surplus after meeting the domestic consumption triggering a fall in the price.

China, he said, was is commissioning 37 new plants with crushing capacity of 35,000 tonnes each and it will flood the market with sugar. Mr. Pawar said that the fall in the price would be a perennial problem for the farmers and the industry and all the stakeholders including the governments at the Centre and the States, should collectively take a decision to solve it. It is time for starting composite industry with cogeneration of power, ethanol, sugar and other industry related activities.

The Union Minister leader called for reducing the pressure on land by weaning away rural people from agriculture, who accounted for 62 per cent, to industries and the service sector. There was an urgent need to go in for mechanisation as the cost of labour was increasing and was not available.

Minister for Rural Water Supply and Sugar S.A. Ravindranath said 47 of the 55 sugar factories in the State were crushing sugarcane grown on 3.57 lakh hectares of land producing 23 lakh tonnes of sugar. The industry was also generating 339 mw of power. Mechanised cultivation would help saving water bringing down the cost with increased yield. He requested Mr. Pawar to come to the rescue of the farmers and the industry by taking up measures through his ministry. Minister for Science and Technology Ramachandra Gowda wanted more areas under drip irrigation and moving over to horticulture which fetched more revenue.

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