3.1 History and Development. ' 3.2 Development of Sugar Industry in India. 3-3 Development of Sugar Industry in Maharashtra
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CHAPTER 5 GROWTH OF SUGAR INDUSTRY CONTENTS 3.1 History and development. ' 3.2 Development of sugar industry in India. 3-3 Development of sugar industry in Maharashtra. 3.4 Zone and region-wise location of installed sugar factories in Maharashtra. 3.5 Progress of sugar factories during 1950-“51 to 1993-94. 3.6 Area production and yield of sugarcane in Maharashtra. 3.7 Selected Norms of Technical efficiency and the performance of sugar factories in Maharashtra. 3.8 Inter zone performance of co-operative sugar factories- 3.9 Chrdnological history of sugar industry in Ahmednagar District. CHAPTER 3 GROWTH OF SUBftR INDUSTRY 3,1 HISTORY & DEVELOPMENT, The sugar industry being the second largest organized Industry next in importance to Textile Industry plays eminent role in economic life of India. The sugar industry has a great significance which cannot be developed in its relation to agricultural and industrial economy of the rural region of India. It is an industry which affects agriculture fundamentally. Therefore, the expansion of sugar industry in India is an indispensable factor for the uplift of socio-economy life of Jnd i a. Sugar has been known to India about 2000 years and there is ample evidence to show that India is the original home of sugarcane as also of sugar in the epics as one of the five "Nectar", i.e. celestial sweets. Nothing tastes so sweet as sugar. Even the English term "sugar" is a derivative of the "Shakkara" was in vogue in Prakrit literature for sugar. Thereafter its mention is found in many languages with different names varying in pronunciation though resembling in some way. It has been mentioned as "schakr" in persian, "sukkar" in Arabic, "Suicar" in Assurian, "Saccharum" in Latin, "Azucar" in spanish and Portuguese, "Zuchero" in Italian, "Sucre" in french, "Zucker" in German and son. Ment.ton about sugarcane is found in the Atharva Veda in SOOO B.C. there is perhaps no earlier description of sugarcane than this in the hoary history of the world. Reference of sugar are found long long ago in the Institute of manu and the treatises of charaka and susruta dealing with medicine. 5 1 5.2 DEVELOPtlENX OF SUBftR INDUSTRY IN INDIA SuQarcane and its main product are known in India since ancient times. The earliest reference of sugarcane appears in Atharava Veda, the sacred book of Hindus composed between 5000 and 1000 B.C. Efforts to establish a modern sugar industry however go back only to the beginning of the present century, India lies entirely to the north of equator. Hence, sugarcane is grown in nearly all parts of India. The First Sugar Factory in India was started in 1784 by a civilian, croftes, at sooksugar which was privately owned. The Second Factory was started in 1791 in Bihar by L.T. Patterson. Then Mr. Edward Campell stove to start another sugar Factory at Trichinapally in Madras State, but he did not succeed. But at the same time, Robert Campbell succeed in establsihing a sugar factory in the same area. According to Mr. Robert Campbell, a sugar factory can not succeed unless it possessed its own sugarcane farm. A logical e>^tension of the co-operative Philosophy to the sugar industry was first made in 1933 when four sugar manufacturing enterprises in the co-operative sector were established at Biswan < Uttar Pradesh), Thummpala Etikoppaka and Vuyyuru (now in Andhra Pradesh). These were established immediately after the sugar industry in the country was granted protection. Out of these, only the Factory of Ettikoppaka has survied- But this surviving sugar factory does not seem to have inspired the scheme of the co-operative factories that was launched in 1954 in India. The credit for initiating this scheme should go to the Pravaranagar co-operative sugar factory 52 established in 1948. Due to the efforts of Prof- Dr. D.R.Gadgil, the factory could start its first crushing season in the year 1950 -51 with a capcity of 450 tons. This venture proved to be a great success and consequently the management ujas soon able to rasie the capcity of 1450 tons.'^ The information about the number of Sugar Factories established in Private, public and cooperative sectors in India is given in Table 1.1. The progress of the sugar industry in the post- Independence period is depicated in the following tables Table No. 5^-1 PROSRESS OF THE SU6AR INDUSTRY IN INDIA Year Area Production No. of Total under of sugar factori es sugar sugarcane cane in produced < *000 <'000 operation ('000 hectares) tonnes) tonnes > 1950.51 1,707 54,823 139 1,100 1960.61 2,415 1,10,001 174 3,021 1970.71 2,615 1,26,360 215 3,740 1980.81 2,667 1,54,248 315 5,148 1987.88 3,287 1,96723 357 9,110 1993.94 3,368 2,27059 394 9,833 Source: Co-opertive Sugar. May 95 : vol.26, No. 9. Table NO- 1 shows the statewise increase in sugar factories in India. In 1973 the number of licienced and established sugar factories was 294 of which 235 had alredy gone into production and 61 were in erection. In 1986 367 sugar 53 factories were in production t< 28 were newly licenced. In 1993— 94 405 sugar factories were in production. The important point to be noted is that the proportion of private sugar factories in the total was higher at 49.32y» while the proportion of co-opsugar factories was 45.27%. The proportion of sugar factories in the public sector was 5.41 percent (orl6) 3.5 DEVELOPMENT OF SUGAR INDUSTRY IN MAHARASHTRA The sugar industry today occupies a premier position in the field of processing of agricultural produce on co-operative lines. In 1950-51 there were in all 13 working sugar factories in the state, of which only one was in the co-operative sector. By the year 1993-94 there were 104 sugar factories, of which 101 were in co-operative sector. 3.3.1 Dr R.M.Karche, in his research publication "Sugar Co operatives in Developing Economy" has traced the origin of first sugar factory in Maharashtra in the year 1919 in private sector. It was started by the British Company at Haregaon, In Ahmednagar district. The Walchandnagar Industries Ltd. establixhed their Walchaandnagar Sugar Farm in the year 1930 and started its sugar factory. By that time, as mentio9ned earlier, in 1930 itself, the Government of India appointed Tariff Commissioner to examine the needs of protection ot the sugar industry which recommended for production protection to the sugar industry for a period of 14 years. It resulted in the establishment of 12 more sugar factories in private sector in Maharashtra by the end of second world war. The private sugar factories developed their own sugarcane farms, adopted moern cultivation practices and sowed farms, adopted modern cultivation practices and sowed the seeds 54 of sugarcane of improved varieties- 3.3.2. Emergence of Sugar Co-operative Factyory in Maharashtra could be traced to 1947. No effort ujas made in the Old Bombay State (now part of the State of Maharashtra after re organisation) to organise any co-operative sugar factory till 1947. The first co-operative sugar factory was registered in Ahmednagar district at Pravaranagar in the year 1948 with the efforts of great co- operators like Late Shri V.L. Mehta, Dr. Gadgil, Shri V.K.Patil. 3.3.3. The congenial climatic conditions of Maharashtra and the role palayed both by this co-operative leadership and thousands of sugarcane grower farmers in the different regions of the state promoted faster growth of the co-operative sugar industry. Prior to the development of the sugar indusstry in Maharashtra the sugarcane growing track of Ahmednagar, Solapur and other draught prone areas presented a barren look where practically nothing grew. After the establishment of a series of sugar factories in the area the face of agriculture entirely changed due to sustained efforts of leadership, agricultural scientists and farmers efforts. 3.3.4. There was considerable growth in the establishment of co operative sugar factories in Maharashtra after the Industrieal Policy Resolution of 1956. It is interesting to note that not a single sugar factory came up in private sector in Maharashtra after this till 1988. As a matter of fact during this period a numbe rof private sugar units were converted into co-operative sugar units. The subsequent development of the industry has followed as per the growth potential in different zones or regions of Maharashtra. 55 3.3.5. Agro-climatically and as per physical geo-physical characteristics, there are four natural regions/zones in which Maharashtra is divided. These are <1) South Maharashtra, (2) Central Maharashtra, (3) North-east Maharashtra, and <4) West— \ coast Maharashtra >Konkan). Cropping pattern and cultivation practices are naturally different in each of these regions/zones. Sugarcane crop is also no exception. Cane cultivation practices, sugarcane yield, Pol V* can ein sugarcane vary from zone to zone. •'Sugar factories have been established in 3 zones viz/ (1) South Maharashtra, <2) Central Maharashtra and (3) North-east Maharashtra. No sugar factory has been installed in the west- coast region of Maharashtra (Konkan region)-" The details about the districts farming part of each zone and the number of installed sugar factories in the districts as compiled by the Vasant Dada Sugar Institute, Pune for the season 1992—93 and 1993- 94 are reproduced as this is the only source of up-to-date information relating to Maharashtra. 3-4 ZONE AND REBIQN-MISE LOCflTlON OF INSTALLED SUGAR FACTORIES IN MAHARASHTRA» As indicated earlier the 108 SLigar factories in Maharashtra are located in South, Central and North East zone only.