Sweet news indeed ... but are the politicians and bureaucrats listening ???
Whereas 98 per cent of the water used for irrigation in Maharashtra goes towards sugarcane cultivation, TSB can be grown in dry areas with one-third to half the water.
Sugarcane needs an initial harvest period of 18 months and 3 ratoons of 12 months each. TSB can be harvested after five months with a yield pegged at 25 to 60 tonnes per acre.
This allows farmers to grow a second crop on the same land.
Maharashtra loses 1,000 acres per year to salinity because of excessive cane production, but TSB can be grown in saline soils and helps to replenish the land.
The input cost is for TSB is Rs 10,000 an acre as compared to Rs 25,000 an acre for sugarcane.
TSB sugar content is 19-20 per cent, while that of the best sugarcane in the country grown at Kolhapur is 14 per cent.
The sugar from both cane and beet has the same sweetness and molecular formula.
The mills can extract sugar from TSB with some additions to their machinery. Sugarbeet needs a diffusion technology to extract sugar.
2 Comments Tell a friendBury
Marathikatta.com - A community for true maharashtrians and mumbaikars! Register, read, write, vote, comment and make friends! Forward this to all your friends and make it popular!
Comments
W-O-W
Just too good to believe... but its true.
I saw this on a science channel as well (it was done in Brazil or some other south american country)
Will our Netas take steps to implement it. Or will they just be abhinetas as shed crocodile tears for the farmers ?
This news deserves to be on front page of newspapers, at least in Maharashtra.
Instead we see the sensex, our cricketers and the usual filmstars (Salman, AB-Aish etc) and Sunita Williams.
And everyday more farmers are comitting suicide (3 more yesterday).
If this is the situation just after the rains what will be the situation by next April-May ?