Sugarcane area jumps 30 per cent in Eastern UP

Lucknow

With agricultural and farmers’ issues likely to be played up during the coming 2022 Uttar Pradesh (UP) assembly polls, the state government is looking to bolster the sugarcane area in Eastern UP – popularly referred to as Purvanchal.

In the last four years, the cane acreage in Eastern UP has witnessed a nearly 30 per cent increase from 439,000 hectares to 573,000 hectares.

According to the data released by the UP cane department, the region has logged an upsurge of 134,000 hectares in cane acreage, which has led to a significant rise in farmers’ income.

“The statistics show that the farm income in Eastern UP has risen by Rs 22,000 per hectare during the period. The total income of farmers in Purvanchal climbed by Rs 1,290 crore,” a state government official said on August 16.

Purvanchal is fast catching up with Western UP in terms of cane production owing to the targeted farm policies aimed at enhancing their income, he added.

The turnaround plausibly happened due to the establishment of new sugar mills, the reopening of defunct/closed units and unhindered sugarcane crushing operations even during the lockdown periods in the state.

“Timely payment of cane price to farmers and the active campaign to connect them with modern technology for information and payment has proved to be effective in this regard,” he underlined.

The gradual expansion of sugarcane-cultivated area and increase in output has pushed up the average yield in Purvanchal from 652.72 quintals per hectare to 722 quintals per hectare in four years, which roughly corresponds to the rule of the Yogi government.

Gorakhpur, which is the largest centre in Eastern UP, is the pocket borough of chief minister Yogi Adityanath. This explains why the CM has been dexterously pushing for faster socio-economic development in the region.

Meanwhile, the state government has distributed 700,000 tonnes of high-quality seeds to farmers.

According to the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), UP is estimated to have a cane area of 2.3 million hectares (MH), more or less similar to the previous year, in the coming 2021-22 sugar season (Oct-Sep).

While these projections were based on satellite images, ISMA – after considering the rainfall in July-September, 2021, the water situation in reservoirs and the second set of satellite images in September/October 2021 across India – will release its first advance estimates for 2021-22 in October 2021.