A symposium organised by the Sugarcane Breeding Institute here witnessed two industry veterans coming up with different views in tackling the problems of the sector.
Bannari Amman Sugars Ltd Chairman SV Balasubramaniam, in his keynote address, said that to get out of the current peril the industry should look for high-yielding cane varieties and cost-effective production, diversification and capacity expansion to meet growing demand for sugar.
But Vice-Chairman of Sakthi Sugars M Manickam said that the industry should cut back on production to only as much as the country needs.
“We will need to de-grow the industry by 10 per cent to get out of this peril,” he said.
Blaming policy makers for the rough and tough situation that the industry is fcat present he said: “It is going to be an interesting 10 years from now on.”
He appealed to the scientific community to come up with a product which the industry would not have to sell to the Government and one that can neither be controlled nor would be controllable by the Government.
He substantiated his argument by talking about the ethanol programme, which he said only added to the woes of the industry, particularly those that had invested in cogeneration.
The EU connection“Further, with the Preferential Quota Regime coming to an end in 2016, the colonies that are presently selling sugar to Europe at a preferential price, will find the excess floating in their own markets.
This surplus is expected at around four million tonnes.” On top of this, EU would start exporting beet sugar as they will be free to do so once the quota regime comes to an end.
This would be around three million tonnes, thus taking the marketable surplus to over seven million tonnes from 2016-17.
“We would have to look for products that will not be controlled by the Government,” he said, adding, “butanol is a beautiful product.”
Invest in researchThe Vice-Chancellor of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University K Ramasamy urged the industry to go in for value addition instead of blaming the Government and stressed the need for investing in path-breaking technologies.
“Research capacity in India is always sleeping.
There is no competition. We need to wake up to reality,” he said and urged the industry to fund the research initiatives of institutions and engage young scientists in diverse research endeavours such as enzyme production, process engineering and developing varieties that produce more carbohydrates and cellulose.