Having 75 distilleries with production capacity of 249.49 crore liters per annum, Uttar Pradesh has become the largest producer of ethanol in the country, with 10 percent blending — the highest among all states. The state government is further establishing 17 new distillery units which are expected to be commissioned in the next two years, said Sanjay R. Bhoosreddy, Additional Chief Secretary, Excise and Sugar Industries & Cane Development Department, and Cane Commissioner, government of Uttar Pradesh, in an exclusive interview with ETGovernment’s Arpit Gupta.
The Uttar Pradesh government is promoting ethanol production under the Ethanol Augmentation Scheme of Government of India and is on path of becoming the largest ethanol supplier of the country. How many distilleries are functioning in the state and what is their production capacity?
Uttar Pradesh has become the largest ethanol supplier of the country. The total number of distilleries in the state is 75 with a total production capacity of 249.49 crore liters per annum. The total number of ethanol producing distilleries are 55 with production capacity of 166.17 crore liters per annum. Establishment of 17 new distillery units is underway and expected to be commissioned in the next two years.
Ethanol production was 42.70 crore liters in the financial year 2016-17, with installed capacity of 87.05 crore liters of 38 distilleries which has increased to 99.31 crore liters in the year 2020-21 and installed capacity also increased to 166.17 crore liters of 53 distilleries. Out of which 43.95 crore liters of ethanol is used in the state and 52.60 crore liters is sold outside the state.
At present, a target of 10 percent ethanol blending has been set by the government of India, which is to be completed by the year 2022. At present, the actual blending has been accomplished in the country to an average of about 8.1 percent. Whereas in Uttar Pradesh, the target of 10 percent blending has already been achieved.
In view of surplus sugar diversion, 47 sugar mills diverted 7 lakh ton sugar by producing B-heavy molasses in the season 2020-21. In the present crushing season 2021-22, 58 sugar mills by B-heavy and 10 sugar mills by direct cane juice or sugar syrup are expected to divert about 10-12 lakh ton of sugar in the coming crushing season. An increase in ethanol production will contribute to the ethanol blending programme and will reduce the problem of environmental pollution as well as saving foreign currency on petroleum fuel.
To solve the problems of sugarcane farmers and to bring transparency and improve efficiency, how are you leveraging technology in Sugarcane and Excise departments? What are the milestones along the digital transformation journey?
The Cane Development department of Uttar Pradesh is an important department directly linked with farmers and the sugar industry is the single largest industry of the state based on agriculture. Sugarcane is mainly grown in 45 districts of the state and its area in the state is about 27.60 lakh hectares. There are 120 operational sugar mills in the state.
We have implemented ERP system to solve the problems of sugarcane farmers and to bring cleanliness and transparency in purchi issuance and other work done by Cooperative Cane Societies. In this system all the information to the cane farmers is being made available through the online portal www.caneup.in and E-Ganna app and the farmers are getting instant information about the ganna purchie on their mobiles through SMS. A mobile app E-Ganna has also been developed for the convenience of farmers, through which all the farmers can access the data related to their survey, satta, calendar, supply ticket, etc on their mobile phone. Till date 45.50 lakh farmers have downloaded the E Ganna app and have hit it 87.25 crore times.
A toll free call center for ease of sugarcane farmers has been made functional to lodge their complaint 24×7 at 1800-121-3203. Till now 2,16,099 complaints were registered, out of which 2,00,820 were effectively resolved.
A new online Khandasari licensing policy was started in the crushing season 2018-19. Under the system of this online license, the facility of compulsory issuance of license in 100 hours was provided, for which one has to apply online through the web site http://www.upkhandsari.in. As a result of this, licenses for 275 new Khandasari units of 69,450 TCDs were issued for the first time in the last 25 years. Out of which 162 units have been operationalized in the current season, with a total crushing capacity of 40,824 TCDs. The operations of these units have generated direct/indirect employment to about 18,144 people with a capital investment of about 648 crores, in rural areas.
Earlier the farmers used to get hand written receipts at the purchase centers, which were often tampered and the farmer was the victim. Sugar mills did not have definite information about sugarcane purchased at the purchase centers, which led to inefficient transportation, staling of sugarcane and lower sugar production. Now each of the 7,000 purchase centers are equipped with HHC, which is GPRS enabled and communicates to the central data bank in real time. After weighment, the HHC gives a printed receipt, updates the central database and sends an instant SMS to the farmer making sure that his data is correctly recorded.
For supply chain management of sugarcane, each field was measured using measuring tapes and data was entered manually into survey registers. The entire process was labour oriented, manual and prone to errors. Now only one person does the survey with a GPS device and the area is calculated automatically. The process is cost effective and accurate. For transparency in fortnightly transfer of weighment clerks, a lottery system is implemented.
We have also linked 43.20 lakh sugarcane farmers with M-Kisan portal. New methods/information related to cane cultivation/ marketing is available on farmers’ mobile phones. With the latest information, sugarcane farmers made changes in the sugarcane sowing method. With the use of modern information/methods, the cost of farming is decreasing and the income of the farmer is increasing.
India is the second largest producer of sugar in the world and about half of the national production of sugar and sugarcane comes from Uttar Pradesh. The state has made record payment to the sugarcane farmers in the last four-five years. Share some figures and insights on this.
In the current crushing season 2021-2022, 75 per cent of due cane price payment has been paid to the sugarcane farmers. In the last crushing season 2020-2021, cane price payment of Rs 30,653.81 crore has been made by the sugar mills of the state till 30.12.2021, which is 87% of the total due cane price. Similarly, Rs 35,898.85 crore in 2019-20 (100%), Rs 33,048.06 crore in 2018-19 (100% ) and Rs 35,443.38 crore in 2017-18 (99.94% ) have been paid. In the last four and a half years, a total cane price of Rs 1,51,000 crore has been paid.
The government has also made a significant increase of Rs 25 per quintal in cane price providing relief to the sugarcane farmers. Now the cane price will be Rs 350 per quintal for early varieties, Rs 340 per quintal for general varieties and Rs 335 per quintal for rejected varieties. Due to this increased cane price, the sugarcane farmers of the state will get an additional amount of about Rs 4,000 crore from sugar mills in the form of cane price in 2021-22.
The government has started the Escrow account mechanism from the year 2017 to ensure timely cane price payment to the farmers. Due to which, the cane price account which was being operated only by mill representatives, is now operated with the joint signature of mill representative and District Cane Officer/Senior Cane Development Inspector. As a result of this, diversion of money from the account of cane price payment has been stopped. Also, before the year 2017, only 85 per cent of the sale price of sugar was tagged for payment of cane price, but to ensure timely cane price payment to the farmers by the present government, from the year 2017-18 along with sugar, 85% of sale price of other mill products like molasses, bagasse and press mud were also tagged.
Along with this, 30 percent of the value of ethanol produced from C-grade molasses has been fixed for cane price. Such sugar mills who are making ethanol from B-heavy molasses or directly from sugarcane juice, 55 per cent of the value of ethanol produced in these sugar mills and 80 per cent of the value of ethanol produced directly from sugarcane juice, Tagged for cane price payment. Apart from this, 65 per cent of the sale price of ethanol, which is used for sanitizer production by the mills, has also been tagged for payment of cane price so that there is no problem in payment of cane price to the farmers.
With the growing demand of sanitizer during Covid-19 pandemic, Sanitiser manufacturing in Uttar Pradesh ramped from the target of 60 thousand liter per day to the capacity of 6 and a half lakh liters per day. How did you convert a crisis into an opportunity?
Our Chief Minister directed the department to make available adequate quantity of hand sanitizers not only in the State but all over the country, even some foreign countries to prevent the spread of Coronavirus in the state. To meet the growing demand of sanitizer, during Covid-19 pandemic sugar mills were persuaded to start the sanitizer production. Between 23rd March, 2020 and 10th April, 2020, 27 sugar factories took necessary licenses and started producing sanitizer which has now increased to 97 units having capacity of 6,03,511 liters per day.
Along with meeting the demand of the state, Uttar Pradesh is also meeting the sanitizer demand of almost all the states of India. So far 27 sugar mills cum distillery units, 12 distilleries and 40 other units have been licensed to produce sanitizer. Besides this, six pharmacies are also producing sanitizer, as above total 97 units/factories engaged in production of sanitizer against only 1 factory at the occurrence of Covid-19. This has not only increased the availability of sanitizer in the State but has also helped in keeping the prices under control. 2.5 crore litre of sanitizer has been produced till date, out of which 2.25 crore litre of sanitizer has been supplied.
In place of closed sugar mills, New sugar mills are being set up. What is the latest on the expansion of 13 sugar mills and their crushing capacity?
In place of closed sugar mills, Pipraich (Gorakhpur) and Munderwa (Basti) of the Corporation sector, new sugar mills of 5,000 T.C.D. and 27 MW capacity co-generation plants were set up. Pipraich Mill and Munderwa Mill were inaugurated in November 2019. In Pipraich sugar mill, it is also proposed to set up a distillery of 120 K.L.P.D. capacity. The said distillery will have a facility to make ethanol directly from sugarcane juice. Thus the Pipraich Mill will be the first sugar mill in North India to make ethanol directly from sugarcane juice.
In view of the sugarcane supply problem of farmers, crushing capacity of sugar mill, Ramala (Baghpat) extended from 2,750 to 5,000 T.C.D. and 27 MW cogen plant was installed. Crushing capacity of Mohiuddinpur-Meerut sugar mill of the corporation sector extended from 2,500 T.C.D. to 3,500 T.C.D. that can be extended up to 5000 TCD and a 15 MW cogen plant was also set up. The above projects created direct / indirect employment for about 15,000 people. Electricity production in cozen units will be helpful in solving the energy problem of the state. Nearly 1,00,000 farmers will be facilitated in sugarcane supply and their economic condition will improve.
In addition to the above, 11 sugar mills in the private sector extended their crushing capacity, which will benefit the sugarcane farmers of these mill areas. As a result of establishment of new sugar mills and expansion of crushing capacity of 11 mills, the crushing capacity of sugar mills of the state has been increased by 33,850 T.C.D. Restarting of three private sector sugar mills (Majhawli, Gagalhedi and Bulandshahr) closed for years will add 12,000 T.C.D. in crushing capacity of the state.
What are your plans for constructing the roads using plastic waste?
Cane Development Department in its Antar Gramin Sadak Nirman Yojna in the year 2018-19, constructed 0.600 km road as a pilot project using 0.26 MT plastic waste thus saving 0.26 MT bitumen. In the year 2019-20, 50.60 km roads were constructed using 22.16 MT (8% of the bitumen) of plastic waste, saving Rs 3.32 lakhs (US $4548). In the year 2020-21, 169 km roads were constructed using 74.00 MT of plastic waste and saved 74 MT of bitumen. Finally saving Rs 11 lakhs (US $15210). In the year 2021-22, construction of 70 km is proposed.
In future 100per cent roads will be constructed by Cane Development Department using plastic waste so as to dispose of plastic waste safely, making pollution free environment and saving foreign exchange, as bitumen is a petroleum product which is to be imported from other countries.
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Addressing a crowd after the inauguration of the fair, Shahnawaz said, “My aim is to stop the migration of workers from Bihar by 2025. Consequently, I have requested reputed firms to set up industries in Bihar and promised to provide easy loans to entrepreneurs. I may also visit Canada, America and other countries to bring investors to the state.”