State's sugar industry grows by leaps and bounds

Industry that provides support to more than 1 million people has evolved into integrated hubs that also produce ethanol and power

- BS REPORTER

From being a significant contributor to India’s ethanol blending programme to initiating projects for social development, the sugar industry of Uttar Pradesh (UP) has grown immensely in the last eight years, expanding its wings beyond sugar production to rural development, renewable energy, farmer welfare, and national economic progress.

Besides paddy and wheat, sugarcane is a major cash crop of UP, with 4.5 million farmer households directly involved in its cultivation across the state.

In the sugar season that ended in September 2025, sugarcane was grown in around 2.95 million hectares of land in Uttar Pradesh, producing around 249.42 million tonnes of sugarcane with an average yield of 8.32 tonnes per hectare.

Mills crushed around 95.50 million tonnes of sugarcane to produce around 9.25 million tonnes of sugar with an average recovery of 9.67 per cent with B-heavy molasses.

Data showed that almost 122 sugar mills operated in the state in the 2024-25 season for around 133 days, producing almost 4.87 million tonnes of molasses and 1.80 billion litres of ethanol.

The industry also generated around 2,912 million units of cogeneration power in the 2024-25 financial year and has a per day crushing capacity of around 840,000 tonnes.

In recent years, one of the major achievements of the sector has been timely and full payment of sugarcane dues, with cane payments exceeding ₹35,000 crore annually.