The Yogi Adityanath government 2.0 has drawn up a blueprint for the next five years for the sugarcane industry and the farmers which includes modernisation of sugar mills, distillery plants, production of sulphur-free sugar, and increasing sugarcane yield and sugar production in a phased manner got the benefit of the families of more than 50 lakh sugarcane growers of the state.

The holistic strategy drawn by the government includes modernisation of 14 sugar mills in five years at a cost of Rs 480 crore. The government has prepared an action plan for the upgradation of 14 sugar mills of Uttar Pradesh Co-operative Sugar Mills Federation Limited in a phased manner. It will cost about Rs 480 crore.

In the first phase, mills in Satha (Aligarh), Sultanpur and Maharajganj-Nautanwa will be modernised in 2022-2023 at an estimated cost of around Rs 95 crore.

In the second phase (2023-2024), the government will spend Rs 105 crore for the modernisation of Bilaspur in Kasganj, Seemakheda in Bareilly and Puranpur sugar mills in Pilibhit. In the third phase 2024-2025, the sugar mills at Ghosi in Mau, Mahmudabad of Sitapur, Bisalpur of Pilibhit and Budaun are to be modernised.

In the final phase of the five-year action plan, the upgradation of sugar mills at Kaimganj in Farrukhabad, Morna in Muzaffarnagar, and Tilhar in Shahjahanpur and Baghpat is to be done. The government will spend Rs 140 each on the eight sugar mills to be modernised in the subsequent two phases.

Similarly, in a phased manner, three mills of Uttar Pradesh State Sugar Corporation Limited -- Pipraich in Gorakhpur, the distillery at Mohiuddinpur in Meerut and Burhwal Chini Mill in Barabanki -- will have a cogeneration plant, sulfur-less plant and distillery. In these three, the contribution of the state government and the Centre will be 30 per cent and 70 per cent loan, respectively.

A multi-feed distillery sugar complex will also be set up at Chhata, Mathura at a cost of Rs 550 crore.

Apart from the modernisation of mills, the government has set a target of increasing sugarcane productivity from 81.5 tons to 84 tons per hectare in five years. Promotion of sugar tourism through sugarcane and its by-products, Sugar Museum at Ganna Kisan Sansthan, the establishment of sales centres for sugar mills produced by union and corporation mills and organisation of Gur Mahotsav every year are the other programmes.

A record payment of more than Rs 1.75 lakh crore has been made to sugarcane farmers. It is known that the welfare of farmers has been the top priority of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath since his first term. This can be possible when about 50 lakh sugarcane growers of the state are happy. In view of this, unprecedented work was done in the first term of the Yogi government. For example, there was a record payment of dues of sugarcane farmers. If we look at the payment figures, the UP government has set a new record by paying more than Rs 1.75 lakh crore to sugarcane farmers since 2017.

Even during the COVID-19 period, all the mills of UP ran at full capacity and made a record in sugar production in the country. While the sugar mills of Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Punjab remained closed during the COVID-19 period, the Yogi government did not allow even a single sugar mill in UP to remain closed during the pandemic.

In 2017, as soon as the Yogi government assumed office, keeping the farmers on the main agenda, it started all the closed sugar mills and increased the capacity of more than one-and-half dozen sugar mills and started new sugar mills at Pipraich, Mundrewa and Ramala.

The crushing capacity of Ramala (Baghpat) mill is 2,750 TCD to 5,000 TCD. A 27 megawatt co- generation plant was set up.

At the same time, the Yogi government gave licences to 270 khandsari units and it also provided employment to 50,000 people.