Uttar Pradesh to become India's Top Sugar Producing State

• 23 May 2023

Why in News?

On 21 May 2023, Uttar Pradesh's Sugarcane Development and Sugar Mills Minister Laxmi Narayan Chaudhary informed that Uttar Pradesh has once again become India's top sugar producing state. The state has surpassed Maharashtra in sugar production.

Key points:

• In 2022, Maharashtra had overtaken Uttar Pradesh to become India's top sugar producing state in sugar production. In the year 2021-22, 138 lakh tonnes of sugar were produced by Maharashtra while the total sugar produced by Uttar Pradesh was 105 lakh tonnes.
• In the current season 2022-2023, a total of 107.29 lakh tonnes of sugar has been produced in Uttar Pradesh, while Maharashtra produced 105.30 lakh tonnes. A total of 2,348 lakh tonnes of sugarcane was produced in the state, while 1,413 lakh tonnes was produced in Maharashtra.
• In the 2022-2023 season, the total sugarcane crushing of sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh was 1,084.57 lakh tonnes, while in Maharashtra it was 1,053 lakh tonnes.
• There are a total of 157 sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh, of which 118 are operational, while in Maharashtra, 210 of the 246 mills are operational.
• In the current season, sugarcane was cultivated in 28.53 lakh hectares in Uttar Pradesh, which is more than any state in the country. In Maharashtra, half of it was cultivated in 14.87 lakh hectares.
• Minister Laxmi Narayan Chaudhary said that during 2022-23, Rs 28,494 crore was provided to farmers. Out of this, 80 sugar mills have been fully paid within a week. A total of Rs 2.11 lakh crore has been paid to sugar mills in the last six years.