In a ‘sweet’ bit of information for 4.5 million sugarcane farmers in Uttar Pradesh, the Yogi Adityanath government has pegged the cash crop’s Gross Value Output (GVO) to exceed Rs 1.41 trillion in the current financial year 2025-26.
This would be a massive jump of Rs 32,385 crore or almost 30 percent from the state’s sugarcane sector’s GVO of Rs 1.09 trillion in 2024-25.
The UP sugarcane development department has drafted an action plan for increasing the crop’s GVO for the benefit of farmers and contributing to the state’s $trillion economy goal.
Of the targetted sugarcane sector’s GVO of Rs 1.41 trillion, the sugarcane and jaggery (gur) value chain would account for roughly Rs 1.03 trillion and Rs 38,000 crore respectively.
“By implementing the action plan, the department aims to play a pivotal role in UP’s economic growth, reinforcing the state’s position as a key player in India’s agricultural and industrial sectors,” a senior official said.
It focusses on boosting sugarcane cultivation and allied industries while reducing reliance on government support, which currently stands at Rs 1,200 crore annually.
By definition, the GVO measures the total economic value of production including both final output (goods and services sold to consumers) and intermediate inputs (goods used in the production process).
As such, the sugarcane GVO would comprise the economic value of all the finished products viz. sugar, jaggery, khandsari, ethanol, molasses, spirits etc as well as the intermediaries used during the entire value chain.
Meanwhile, the strategies outlined include: increasing the average sugar recovery rate from 9.56 percent to 10.50 percent, ensuring timely sale of sugar to prevent financial losses from delays, expanding storage capacity of sugar mills by streamlining operations and recruiting skilled workers through outsourcing by May 2025.
Of the total 121 UP sugar mills, the private companies account for the maximum number of about 93 units, followed by 28 mills of the cooperatives as well as the UP State Sugar Corporation (UPSSC).
The state’s sugarcane payments by all these mills to farmers top Rs 2.8 trillion since March 2017.
UP is India’s top sugarcane and sugar producing state. In 2024-25, the state’s sugarcane acreage stood at almost 3 million hectares (MH).
The sugarcane productivity has also increased from 72 tonnes per hectare in 2016-17 to about 85 tonnes per hectare.
Apart from sugar mills, a large number of ‘khandsari’ (unrefined/unprocessed sugar) units have also been set up in UP.