Speaking to The Financial Express, the UP Cane Commissioner SR Lakha said the overall sugarcane production in the state would be around 1,200 lakh tonnes which was, incidentally, the target for sugarcane production set by the state government.

Of this, 519 lakh tonnes has been earmarked for the 120 sugar mills in the state of which 34 are from the cooperative sector, 34 with the UP Sugart Nigam, three with the state government while the rest fall in the private sector.

Of the remaining 681 lakh tonnes, an estimated 420 lakh tonnes would be made available to the khandsari sector and the rest utilised for manualcrushing for the production of gur.

According to Lakha, the inclement weather which affected almost all agricultural commidities in UP, had an impact on the gur and khandsari sector which got 25 per cent less of the sugarcane entitled to them since this was diverted to the mills to ensure that there was no shortfall in sugar production.

It is on account of this pre-emptive measure by the state government that UP was able better its sugar production from 38.7 lakh tonnes last year between October 1 to April 30 to 39.3 lakh tonnes in the corresponding period this year. Not only that, state government officials also attribute this performance to better procurement prices fixed by the state government as well as speedy clearance of arrears to farmers through the intervention of banks.

"All these steps have ensured that the area under sugarcane cover does not decrease in the state," stated a senior bureaucrat.

In fact, the UP government has cleared almost Rs 2,450 crore worth of cane arrears to the farmersagainst outstandings of Rs 3,015 crore so far which works out to over 85 per cent of clearance of dues.

More importantly, however, state government officials attribute higher sugar production in the state to higher capacity utilisation by mills in the state and consequently higher recovery from the same quantities of sugarcane. For instance, in the cooperative sector, though the 34 mills in this sector produced 9 lakh tonnes of sugar against 12 lakh tonnes in the corresponding period last year largely on account of a severe liquidity crunch, there was a 7 per cent increase in capacity utilisation and a 0.36 per cent in recovery rates.

On the whole, however, the shortfall in sugar production in the cooperative sector in UP was more than offset by the private sector sugar mills. With regard to prices, the prevailing price of early varieties of sugarcane is Rs 80 per quintal while the prices of ordinary and mid-late varieties is around Rs 75 per quintal. Buoyed by its performance in the sugar sector, the UPgovernment has also commenced a special drive since January this year to further improve its record.

To begin with, the area under sugarcane cultivation has been increased by 20 to 30 per cent. And with a yield of a healthy 540 quintals per hectare, this step would go a long way in enhancing sugarcane production.

Other steps include a 12 per cent replacement of old less-yielding varieties with better early varieties for which an allocation of Rs 26 crore has been made to the state seed corporation. In addition, the state government has supplied farmers with urea and largely subsidised seed transportation costs as well.

With these measures, Cane Commissioner Lakha is optimistic that UP will have a bumper sugar production of around 45 to 46 lakh tonnes during the October crushing season which will more than offset any shortfalls registered by other major sugar producing state, including Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.