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Sunday, 10 June 2012

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A sweet deal

We hear a lot of bad things about sugar, but that has not stopped Sri Lankans from consuming nearly half a million tons of the sweet stuff every year, at a cost nearly Rs.40 billion. Apart from the health aspect, what is more worrying is that more than 85 percent of that quantity is imported.

One may question as to why Sri Lanka needs to import sugar whilst having four sugar factories - Hingurana, Kantale, Sevanagala and Pelwatte. With two of them (Hingurana and Kantale) being more or less out of commission, they produce only a fraction of the sugar we need, despite having the potential to manufacture a bigger quantity - at least 50 percent of the annual domestic requirement according to some estimates. Indeed, when all four of them were functioning at full capacity in the mid 1990s, they met around 20 percent of the country’s sugar requirements.

One should also take into account other products that can be made from sugarcane. For example, sugarcane juice is very popular in certain countries but it is virtually unknown here.

It can be made fresh or canned for consumption later. Moreover, brown sugar and sugarcane jaggery could be made more popular. Sugarcane reeds can also be used to make a variety of products. Some residual products can be used as livestock feed. These will be good money spinners for sugarcane growers.

At some point in the future, it could be possible to set aside a certain number of hectares of sugarcane for ethanol fuel production as well.

Some experts have called for a ‘Sugar Act’ to give legal impetus to the sugar industry which is still struggling after abortive privatisations and then neglect in the early 1990s. Many other countries have similar legislation - Philippines recently passed a Sugarcane Industry Act with the aim of improving its sugar industry.

Strengthened

The Sugarcane Research Institute (SRI) of Sri Lanka based in Uda Walawe should be strengthened. It recently held its 2012 research and development program review where several important developments were discussed. It also introduced three new sugarcane varieties, namely, SL 95 4033, SL 95 4430 and SL 96 328, suitable for both irrigated and rain-fed cultivation. Sugarcane farmers now have an opportunity to diversify their sugarcane crops with the release of these high-yielding sugarcane varieties which can give about 15 percent more cane and sugar yield than the existing commercial varieties. It is also making efforts to produce varieties which are more resitant to the White Leaf Disease and the Grassy Shoot Disease which commonly affect sugarcane cultivations.

It is thus heartening to note that attempts are being made to spur a revival of the industry which can save us millions of dollars in foreign exchange every year. It was reported last week that sugar production at the Sevanagala sugar factory taken over from the private sector in November 2011 is successful after nine years.

Factory sources say 11,000 metric tons of sugar will be produced from the harvest reaped from 2,211 hectares cultivated for the first round of grinding.

This has benefited over 4,000 farmer families. It is expected to produce 21,000 metric tons of sugar by 2014 from 37,000 hectares. This may seem like a tall order, given that only around 30,000 hectares of sugarcane cultivations now exist in the entire country. We are also told that the Hingurana Sugar Factory which remained closed for more than 22 years owing to terrorist activities and mismanagement is now being repaired at a cost of Rs. 1,300 million.

This is a step in the right direction and should be considered only as a start. The districts which are most suitable for this industry should be identified. We need to cultivate sugarcane in more than 100,000 hectares to even think of cutting down on imports substantially. There are many lands in Moneragala, Ampara, Kantale and Trincomalee districts which can be used for sugarcane cultivation.

Even the Kilinochchi district, emerging from the three-decade tension, has certain lands suitable for sugarcane cultivation. Before terrorism erupted, there had been nearly 120 ha of land under sugarcane cultivation in Skandapuram in Akkaraikulam in Kilinochchi district, and the cane had been used for jaggery production. A sugarcane nursery of the variety SL 83 06, a commercial variety developed by SRI, of about 0.4 ha in the Regional Agricultural Research Centre (RARDC) in Kilinochchi was established as a preliminary step.

Irrigation

Outgrower farmers new to the crop can be told that they can intercrop sugarcane with many other crops including maize, potatoes, onions, chillies and watermelon. This will give them a considerable additional income and a very good reason to stick to sugarcane. While most plantations are rainfed, supplementary irrigation methods coupled with another crop could give a higher yield and a higher income.

We can also take a cue from some other countries which have successful sugarcane and sugar industries such as Brazil which use traditional and modern methods for cultivation. Interestingly, neighbouring India and Pakistan are two of the biggest producers of sugarcane in the world.

It might be a good idea to establish a SAARC-wide sugarcane research and technology network that will benefit all eight countries.

There should be a bigger marketing campaign to promote locally grown sugar. Most consumers are in the dark on this issue – some of them do not even know that sugar is made locally.

The Ganna Apey Dey (Buy Local Products) campaign has been effective up to some extent in this regard, but more needs to be done. The price is a clincher – with a kilo of imported white (refined) sugar costing up to Rs.125, local producers will have a winner if they can price their produce more affordably without losing quality.

Apart from retail sales, they should also link up with companies that use sugar in their products, such as bakeries, canneries, soft drinks/dairy manufacturers and biscuit/confectionary manufacturers to supply local sugar directly. A lot of steps on these lines can be taken to develop the local sugarcane industry. We hope that the day when all the sugar we consume comes from our own farms is not far away.

 

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