Sugarcane once meant just sugar and jaggery. Today it also fuels India’s cars, through an ethanol-blending push that hit its target five years early.
✊ Must Know
World Rank and Area Grown
- Rank India is the world’s second-largest sugarcane producer, after Brazil.
- Area Sugarcane is grown across roughly 5.4 million hectares nationwide.
Leading Producer States
- Top States Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra are India’s leading sugarcane-producing states.
- Also Major Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are also major producers.
- Output India produced about 878 lakh tonnes of sugarcane in a recent season.
🏘️ Good to Know
Ethanol Blending Milestone
- Blending India reached 20% ethanol blending in petrol by January 2026.
- Ahead of Target That target was met five years ahead of the original 2030 goal.
- Feedstock Sugarcane juice, syrup, and molasses can all be converted into ethanol.
How the FRP of Sugarcane Is Set
- Recommends The Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) studies sugarcane production costs. It then recommends a Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) each season.
- Approves The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by the Prime Minister, approves the FRP. This is the actual legal step that fixes the price mills must pay.
- Legal Basis The FRP is a statutory minimum price. It is fixed under the Sugarcane (Control) Order, 1966, issued under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955.
- 2026-27 FRP For sugar season 2026-27, the CCEA approved an FRP of ₹365 per quintal, at a base recovery rate of 10.25%.
Test Yourself
⚡ Great to Know
Maize Overtakes Sugarcane in Ethanol
- Capacity India’s ethanol production capacity grew nearly fivefold since 2013-14.
- Shift By 2024-25, maize had overtaken sugarcane as the top ethanol feedstock.
Mills vs. Recovery Rate
- Contrast Maharashtra runs more sugar mills than Uttar Pradesh, but with a lower recovery rate.
📰 Current Affairs
28 July 2026 — Stock Holding Limits on Sugar Dealers
- Order On 28 July 2026, the Government imposed stock holding limits on sugar dealers nationwide. The order runs from 1 August 2026 to 30 November 2026. (Source: PIB)
- Why The move aims to curb hoarding and speculative trading, and to stabilise prices. The Government said recent ex-mill price rises weren’t backed by real demand-supply fundamentals. (Source: PIB)
- Paper Trades Officials also flagged “paper trades” — deals with no actual physical movement of sugar from mills — as adding to a false sense of scarcity. (Source: PIB)
- Compliance Dealers must now declare their sugar stocks, and update them weekly. This is done through the Department of Food and Public Distribution’s online portal. (Source: PIB)
📝 Previous Year Question
UPSC CSP 2015 — Who Approves the FRP of Sugarcane
- UPSC 2015 Asked as: “The Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) of sugarcane is approved by the” (UPSC CSP 2015, GS Paper I).
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