Organic farming may have answer to rising sugar prices: study

Explaining the motive behind selecting Jalgaon and Kolhpur districts for the survey,Kshirsagar says in the report,”Jalgaon is the only district in the state that has the largest number of organic sugarcane growers. Further,it is the only district to face problems such as water scarcity and sustainability due to sugarcane cultivation. On the other hand,Kolhapur district has the highest area of sugarcane amongst all the districts of Maharashtra.”

The survey includes 70 farmers from Jalgaon out of which 38 are organic sugarcane (OS) growers and 34 inorganic sugarcane growers (IS). In case of Kolhapur district the number is 34 and 36 respectively making it a total of 142 sugarcane growers – 72 OS and 70 IS.

Considering the high input requirement in case of Organic sugarcane as the driving point behind employment generation,the report states that farmers using organic sugarcane are found to possess more livestock thus contributing to their personal wealth. Kshirsagar says in the report,”The sugarcane sector is one of the most important employment generation sectors in the country with 7.50 per cent of the total rural population of India employed under it. Thus,because of the large human labour- days required in case of organic sugarcane,the labour use is 16.90 per cent more than that in case of inorganic sugarcane. Further,in case of organic sugarcane,intercropping is possible which results in generating constant employment all through the year.”

The report credits the increased profit margin to the reduced input costs in case of organic sugarcane. “The cultivation cost of organic sugarcane is less by 14.24 per cent compared to inorganic sugarcane. Similaraly,the cost of manure and irrigation is less by 26.76 per cent and 18.48 per cent respectively.

The per ton cost of production is thus found to be 8.02 per cent lesser in case of organic sugarcane than in case of inorganic,” Kshirsagar says in the report.

As per the report,the gross value of production is thus Rs 116,711 per hectare in case of organic sugarcane compared to Rs 112,087 in case of Inorganic sugarcane contributing to 15.63 per cent higher profits in case of organic sugarcane.