NEW CANE SEEDS COULD WIPE OUT SUGAR SHORTAGEMumbai: Farmers in North India got a welcome gift in the form of three new high-yielding sugarcane seeds to be introduced by the Coimbatore-based Sugarcane Breeding Institute.
The seeds CO-238, CO-239 and CO-118 will be sown at 27 sugarcane growing centres in the North from the crop season starting October next year.
The Sugar Technologists Association of India (STAI) has taken the lead to propagate the seeds through the institutions sub-station in Karnal, Haryana.
Farmers have been steadily moving away from growing sugarcane to other remunerative crops, leaving most sugar mills with little cane to crush.
Farmers have been steadily moving away from growing sugarcane to other remunerative crops, leaving most sugar mills with little cane to crush.
Dr. G.S.C. Rao, President, STAI, said, We have tested the seeds on 40,000 hectares and found that the yields are about 70 tonnes a hectare against the conventional 55 tonnes. The recovery ranges between 10 and 10.5 per cent against 9.5 per cent normally. The new seeds will be a boon to farmers and sugar companies particularly in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, which have been facing a huge cane shortage.
Even as the new sugarcane variety will take a year to mature, farmers will gain from higher yield and good prices to be offered by sugar mills. The present shortfall in sugar supply will be wiped out by 2010-11, he said.
-Suresh P. Iyengar
THE HINDU BUSINESS LINE
14 Nov. 2009
