Indian Sugar Sector Network Case Study (Draft)

M/s Purti sugar mill is situated at Khursapar (Bela) village near about 60 KM from Nagpur at national highway (Nagpur-Chandrapur) in Umred Taluka.  This complex has been started within the leadership of Shri. Nitinji Gadkari, Chairman, who had laid the foundation stone of this multiproduct  complex, which in the years to come would be the ideal example for whole Indian sugar industry sector. This multiproduct  complex is spread over 250 Acres and consist of the following

Sugar Complex

The sugar industry began its crushing operation in 2002 with a capacity of 2500 TPD. of cane per day. But  eventually operating a sugar factory in an area where small number of farmers are planting sugar cane which is insufficient to assure the operation of the sugar factory would not have been commercially viable. This year the  restriction of the command area has been removed by the government  which in turns helps the industry to procured  the sugarcane from outside the command area.

In this region water table is very low therefore water scarcity problem is very high as compare to other sugarcane growing region. This sugar factory has an enormous importance for the surrounding community. Being located in the rural area, it provides  employment opportunity and increases secondary business in the area. During the harvesting season, the cane is taken to the  mill mostly by tractors (single & doubled trolley), bullock cart, and trucks. This year, most of the sugar cane came from the nearby areas like Wardha , Nanded, Selu, which approximately takes  6 to 8 hrs, while in case of Madhya Pradesh it takes more than 12 to 15 hrs.

Harvesting is done by hand. Sugarcane cutting is a hard and dirty job, but provides employment to people in nearby areas where jobs are scarce. Sugarcane is cut at about ground level, the top green leaves are chopped off and then the stalk is bundled. Once a complete bundle has been assembled, it is removed from the field with the help of labourers and transferred to a larger vehicle for transport to the mill. The harvested sugar cane should be crushed within 24 hrs. to get a good recovery of sugar. Therefore every sugar mill has provided transportation and harvesting facility to the farmers on nominal charges, which  ultimately provides secondary employment to the nearby communities. more>>