• Importance of sugar industry.

Provides work for about 0.5 million people.

More than 50 million sugarcane growers and

their dependents are directly related to the

sugar industry.

Highest consumer – around 23 million tonnes.

Demand in 2020 – around 30-31 million tonnes

Incremental rise – around 4% per annum.

In 2012-13, 526 mills in operation.

Production around 25 million tonnes.

Limitation on area expansion.

• Production of ethanol – around 2.5 billion liters.

• Potential – 7500 MW of green power.

Facts and Figures

9.7

9.8

9.9

10

10.1

10.2

10.3

10.4

10.5

10.6

52

54

56

58

60

62

64

66

68

70

72

Su

ga

r R

ec

ove

ry %

Ca

ne

Yie

ld t

/ha

Crushing Season

Cane Yield and Sugar Recovery of India

Cane Yield Sugar Recovery

• Turnover – Rs.800 billion

• Dependency of farmers, labour and

consumers

• 65% of sugar consumed by bulk consumers

• Higher potential for

Employment

Renewable and eco-friendly raw material

Sugarcane – Most efficient converter of

solar energy into sugar

• Contributor to a stable economy.

Dimensions and Dynamics

• Diminishing or stagnant yield and recovery.

• Diversion of sugarcane area to other

competitive crops.

• Fluctuations in production due to inherent

cyclic nature.

• Water availability for irrigation.

• Small and marginal land holdings.

• Limitations in mechanized farming.

Challenges

• Fixation of cane price

• Export and import

• Ethanol blending programme

Government Policies

• The renewable eco-friendly raw material –

enormous scope for harnessing and

development of value added products.

• Additional income generation and

employment.

• Entire biomass from sugarcane including

leaves and tops are being intensively

investigated for profitable utilization.

• To provide economic stability to industry &

growers and consistent supply of products

to consumers.

• Substantial scope for saving in foreign

exchange.

Why emphasis on R & D

• India - 0.87%

• Brazil - 1.17%

• Russian Federation - 1.25%

• China - 1.70%

• South Africa - 0.93%

• Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Mexico - less than 0.5%

• Most of the developed countries spend more

than 2% of their GDP on R & D.

Expenditure of R & D on GDP

• Gross expenditure on R & D is driven by the

Government sector comprising of –

Central Government – 54.4%

State Governments – 7.3%

Higher Education – 4.1%

Public Sector Industries – 5.3%

Private Sector Industries – 28.9%

Expenditure on R & D in India

• In Industrial R & D,

Drugs and Pharmaceutical – 27.7%

Transportation – 14%

Information Technology -13.6%

Defence Industries – 6.1%

Expenditure on R & D in India

• Industrial sector spent 0.61% of their sales

turnover on R & D activities. For Private

sector – 0.27% and Public sector – 0.82%

• Applying this formula to sugar industry, our

expenditure on R & D should be around

Rs. 4.4 billion

• R & D expenditure of Brazil in sugar sector is

of US$ 1.7 billion (Rs. 105.4billion)

Indian investment in R & D (2009-10)

• Leading Institutes in sugarcane research (ICAR)

Sugarcane Breeding Institute (SBI),

Coimbatore

Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research

(IISR), Lucknow

• Organizations engaged in developing sugarcane

and sugarbeet varieties

UP Government Federation

State Agriculture Universities

• Institutes engaged in R & D activities related to

processing of sugarcane, ethanol, co-generation

and by-products

National Sugar Institute

Vasantdada Sugar Institute

Praj Industries Ltd.

R & D Organizations in sugar sector

• Sugarcane Development Fund (SDF), Govt. of India

Soft loan assistance for agriculture, plant

expansion and modernization of sugar mills.

Grants for research projects.

• Project based funding from Govt. organizations

Indian Council for Agriculture Research (ICAR)

Department of Science & Technology (DST)

Department of Bio-technology (DBT)

Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC)

Funding agencies

PROSPECTS IN SUGARCANE AGRICULTURE

Wide gap between the potential yield

and actual yield realized

600

355

125

66

84

57 105

Potential of Cane yield Cane Harvested by some farmers

Research farm cane yields Average of India

Average of Maharashtra Average of Uttar Pradesh

Average of Tamilnadu

Varietal development

Planting and harvesting programme

Seed replacement programme

Soil fertility and integrated nutrient management

Use of microbial inoculants

Micro irrigation and fertigation

Strengthening research on mechanization

Plant protection through bio-control agents

Ratoon management

HRD and extension mechanism

Sugarcane Agriculture – R & D Priorities

Varietal Development

SBI Coimbatore is the premier Institute in the country working

for the development of varieties.

Recently VSI has established Sugarcane Breeding Centre at

Amboli, Dist. Sindhudurg in Maharashtra.

Sugarcane Breeding Centre, Amboli

Seed Multiplication and Replacement

Plant Cane (60%) 6 lakh ha

Ratoon (40%) 4 lakh ha

Seed Replacement on 2 lakh ha (1/3)

Certified Seed Requirement on 13300 ha

Foundation Seed Requirement on 670 ha

Total area under sugarcane 10.00 lakh ha

Production of 33.50 lakh Tissue culture plantlets

Breeder Seed 55 ha

Breeder Seed Programme

Advantages of Tissue-culture Technique

• Genetic purity

• Faster rate of multiplication

• Higher seed multiplication ratio

• Disease and pest free

• Quick & Higher (95-98%) germination

• Early establishment

• Uniform maturity

• Increase in cane yield by 20-25%

Soil Fertility and Integrated Nutrient Management

I) Organic Manuring

Bio-compost production at sugar mill site

Implementation of Green manuring practice

II) Establish soil testing laboratory

III) Foliar application of multi micronutrients

IV) Use of bio-fertilizers in sugarcane

V) Reclamation of salt affected soils

Use of microbial inoculants Azotobacter & Rhizobium Glucanoacetobacter bioinoculant Phosphate Solublizing culture Sulphur Oxidizing bioinoculant Silicon solublizers Potash mobilizers Micronutrients mobilizers Consortia of endophytic bioinoculants Decomposing cultures Growth promoting/Antimicrobial ability

Efficient Water Management in Sugarcane

Extensive research work on micro irrigation techniques

Drip irrigation - Irrigation water 45 to 50%

Increase in cane yield by 25 to 30%

WUE 2 to 2.5 times more

Raingun sprinkler - Irrigation saving 30 to 35%

Increase in cane yield 15 to 20%

WUE1.50 to 2.00 times more

Urgent requirement of mechanization for

• Planting

• Inter-culturing operations

• Harvesting

Mechanization in Sugarcane

Important Pests in sugarcane - Early shoot borer, internode borer, top

borer, root borer, woolly aphid, white fly, termites, white grub and rodents

Important diseases- Whip smut, Grassy shoot, Pokkah boeng, Rust,

Wilt, Pinnaple, Leaf spot, Brown spot

More emphasis on Biological Control Measures

Integrated Pest and Disease Management

Ratoon cane: 45 to 50% of total area under sugarcane

Ratoon cane productivity: less by 25 to 30 t/ha than plant cane

Ratoon Management Techniques

Trash mulching

Stubble shaving

Off barring

Gap filling

Foliar application of micronutrients

Bio-fertilizer applications

Ratoon Management

• Manpower

• HRD Infrastructure

• Training Facilities

• Field demonstrations

Strengthening HRD and Extension Mechanism

• Use of membrane filtration in sugar industry.

• Product diversification and improved sugar

quality – VVHP raw sugar.

• Reduction in steam consumption.

• Cane sampler

Thrust areas for R & D

Sugar Processing

• Product diversification and improved sugar

quality

Replacement of sulphitation process by

defecation

Use of concentrated defecated syrup for

bakery industries

Production of Very Very High Pol (VVHP) raw

sugar below 500 IU and its use for direct

human consumption

Use of VVHP sugar for refined sugar

production

SUGAR PROCESSING

• Reduction in steam consumption

Many sugar mills in India have been

successful in reducing steam consumption

from 45% to 38-40%.

Some sugar mills reduced steam

consumption up to 36% on cane.

In near future, steam consumption can

practically be reduced below 27% on cane

by saving through waste heat recovery.

Contd..

A Molasses

B Bagasse

C Sugarcane Trash

D Press-mud Cake

SUGAR MILL

BY-PRODUCTS

These products have become extremely important

to offer flexibility of operations and diversification

in the sugar sector.

Gasification

Second & Third Generation Ethanol

Ethanol from alternate sugar processing

intermediates

Bio-methanation of concentrated spent wash

Other important R & D projects for

sugar sector

Gasification is a process to produce syngas (CO+H2)

from biomass.

Syngas can be converted into various value added

products.

Commercial scale thermal gasification plant (SW+PMC)

is under erection at Kopargaon co-operative sugar mill

in Maharashtra (India).

Advantages:

1. Zero discharge/zero pollution

2. Valuable syngas generation

Particulars Power generation- KW/T bagasse

Conventional system Gasification route

Complete biomass

use for power

generation KW/T cane

145

240

Captive power

consumption KW/T

cane

35 35

Net surplus power

KW/T cane

110 210

Bagasse can be thermally gasified to syngas and syngas

can be used for the generation of power.

By conventional co-generation route used in sugar mills,

110 Kwh power can be generated from one tonne of cane,

whereas through thermal gasification route power

generation can be almost doubled

Biomass Gasification Syngas

Syngas Gas Fermentation Ethanol

Emerging technology: Wide variety

of biomass can be used including

lignin content, which is usually

difficult to break down and not

utilized via bio-chemical route.

Expected to give maximum yield of

more than 400 liters per tonne of

biomass.

Lowest cost of production than

ethanol production by other routes.

VSI is working on this route.

1

2

3

Bagasse

Cane Trash

Cane Tops

Cellulosic ethanol fermentation using genetically modified microorganisms is under investigation.

Use of genetically modified microorganisms for production of ethanol and other value added products like hydrogen, bio-butanol, is also interesting and extremely potential area for R & D activities.

VSI has started activities in this direction.

Amyris (Brazil): Sugarcane juice to diesel (genetically modified yeast).

Biogas based Compress Natural Gas (CNG) production (First plant is now operating in one of the member distillery of VSI)

Bio-butanol production.

Lactic acid production by fermentation route

Development of thermotolerant yeast for alcoholic fermentation

Development of Very High Gravity fermenting yeast for alcoholic fermentation

To make the industry globally competitive,

the industry must be able to innovate

putting in investment in R & D.

There should be constant interaction and

effective coordination between the industry

and research organizations.

There is urgent need to create a separate

fund for providing financial assistance for

R & D activities in sugar sector.

CONCLUSION

All research organizations need to

coordinate their efforts for enhancing future

technologies in every field and to avoid

duplication of research activities.

All stakeholders i.e. growers, processors,

consumers and most importantly the

government have to play proactive role to

assure the country to protect the interest of

each stakeholder and make the sector stable,

strong and efficient.

Contd…

THANK YOU…