The Motihari sugar factory. Telegraph picture

Patna, April 6: The Bihar government has decided to promote Madhepura and Banka districts as prospective sites for attracting investment in sugar industry. The sugarcane industry department has taken the initiative.

Sharing details with The Telegraph, sugarcane industry minister Awadhesh Prasad Kushwaha said: “A good number of farmers are growing sugarcane in these two districts as the soil of the area is very conducive for sugarcane farming. Realising the potential of these two areas, we have decided to promote these districts as investment opportunity for those interested in setting up sugar factories in Bihar.”

The minister appears to be correct as in the Banka district sugarcane is being grown on 8,693 hectares, whereas in case of Madhepura the sugarcane cultivation is being carried out on 5,771 hectares.

With no sugar factory in place, sugarcane growers of the area are making jaggery and 10 trucks loaded with jaggery from these two districts are being sent to Bengal on a daily basis. Ideally, the requirement of one sugar factory is met if sugarcane is grown on 10,000 hectares.

When one takes into account the sugarcane cultivation being carried out in adjoining districts of the two districts, the investors would not have a problem setting up factories there.

In case of Banka, sugarcane is grown in adjoining Bhagalpur (6,451 hectares) and Jamui (2,390 hectares) districts. For Madhepura, sugarcane is grown in adjoining Supaul (165 hectares) and Saharsa (1,414 hectares) districts.

“We have deputed our officials in Banka and Madhepura to ensure that all the incentives which are being given by the government for growing sugarcane could be given to farmers so that more area could be brought under sugarcane cultivation,” Kushwaha said.

He said some investors from Jharkhand had shown interest in setting up sugar factory in Banka and a round of talks have been held with them. “In case of Madhepura, several investors had shown interest in setting up sugar factories and very soon meeting would be held with the prospective investors,” added the minister.

Promoting sugarcane farming in new areas and attracting investors, the sugarcane industry department has also chalked out plans to bring more areas under sugarcane cultivation and also to encourage the existing sugar factory owners to enhance and diversify production.

“At the time of Independence, around 3.5 lakh hectares was being used for sugarcane cultivation. The area gradually declined because of poor condition of sugar industries. The NDA government paid special attention to this sector and in 2010-11, the total area used for sugarcane cultivation stood at 3.12 lakh hectares. Our effort is to bring 3.5 lakh hectares under sugarcane cultivation in 2011-12,” Kushwaha said.

He said factory owners would be encouraged to enhance their production capacity as the government targets to achieve 4.25 lakh metric tonnes of sugar production in 2011-12. In 2010-11 Bihar produced 3.16 lakh metric tonnes of sugar, which was still lower than what the state produced at the time of Independence. The production level at that time was 3.5 lakh metric tonnes.

On the diversification front, the state government would encourage existing sugar factory owners to take up ethanol production. At present sugar factories at Harinagar Sidhwalia and Riga are producing ethanol and in 2010-11 a total of 26.16 lakh litre of ethanol was produced by these factories. The government stands for taking this production level to at least 70 lakh litres in 2011-12.

“I would soon call a meeting of all the sugar factory owners to discuss these points,” Kushwaha said.