Lack of raw materials, sugar factory "shuts down" machines early
(Baonghean) - Recently, sugar factories in the province have been facing a serious shortage of raw materials, some factories have had to end the pressing season earlier than usual. Creating a stable raw material area and developing the sugar industry sustainably is an issue that requires responsibility from many sides.
Severe shortage of raw materials
Like every year, it is now the time for Nghe An Sugarcane Company to concentrate on sugarcane pressing, the pressing season lasts until mid-April or at least the end of March. This year, just past the beginning of March, the company's workers have been cleaning and maintaining the machines as usual after a year of pressing.
Mr. Anthony John Mape - General Director of Nghe An Sugarcane Company Limited, worried: "According to the plan, in the 2016 - 2017 crushing season, we will crush about 650,000 tons, however, we can only purchase 534,000 tons of raw sugarcane. The raw material source is lacking because farmers have converted part of their sugarcane area to grow other crops, and over 100,000 tons of raw material in the area are sold to other factories in the province."
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| Taking care of sugarcane in Nghia Phu commune (Nghia Dan). Photo: PH |
In Tan Ky, one of the province's key sugarcane growing areas, in 2016 alone, the district's raw sugarcane area decreased by nearly 1,000 hectares, to nearly 5,400 hectares. Ms. Dang Thi Van - Deputy Head of the district's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development shared: The district's viewpoint is still to maintain the planned area, but people still switch to other crops.
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| Bringing raw materials into sugarcane press at Song Con sugar factory. Photo: Archive |
Nghe An currently has 3 sugar cane factories located in the area, with a total processing capacity of 13,300 tons of sugar cane per day. To ensure raw materials for processing, the province has planned more than 30,000 hectares of land for growing raw sugar cane with about 42,000 farming households participating in sugar cane growing, providing 2 million tons of raw sugar cane each year. However, up to now, due to many reasons, the whole province only has about 22,000 hectares of sugar cane left. Not only has the area decreased, but the productivity and output of sugar cane have not increased, up to now it is still only 50 - 55 tons/ha, while the factories all have plans to invest in increasing pressing capacity.
Find a solution
While the area does not increase, investing in increasing productivity and quality is the most effective solution and is being focused on by many businesses and localities in the current period. According to Mr. Anthony John Mape - General Director of Nghe An Sugarcane Company Limited, the company has been implementing a project to produce 3-level sugarcane varieties including level 1 sugarcane varieties in Yen Thanh, level 2 and level 3 sugarcane varieties in Nghia Dan, selecting and creating new sugarcane varieties with high quality and productivity for production. At the same time, investing in machinery will help sugarcane growers mechanize the stages of planting, weeding, fertilizing, spraying pesticides, watering sugarcane, especially testing harvesting and loading sugarcane by machine to reduce costs, increase productivity and quality of sugarcane.
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| Raw sugarcane of Tan Ky Sugarcane Company. Photo: PH |
In Nghia Phu commune (Nghia Dan), the "large field" for concentrated raw sugarcane production with an area of 15 hectares has been deployed for the past 2 years with the participation of 22 households. In this field, technical measures from introducing new varieties, applying water-saving irrigation technology, to investing in intensive farming on favorable areas and promoting mechanization from land preparation, planting, care and harvesting are all implemented synchronously and in a unified process. Thanks to that, sugarcane productivity has increased by nearly 30% compared to before.
Most recently, on March 16, 2016, the Provincial People's Committee issued a decision approving adjustments and supplements to the planning of raw sugarcane production areas. Accordingly, by 2020, the entire province will have a standing sugarcane area of 28,957 hectares.
Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development - Mr. Hoang Nghia Hieu said: Along with the planning issue, solutions on science, technology and engineering; on policy mechanisms are also specifically built. Accordingly, advanced technologies will be researched, absorbed and applied to invest in developing sugarcane production according to the technology application process suitable to the production conditions in the area to achieve high and sustainable results. In the condition that the land fund for sugarcane raw material areas is reduced, sugar factories and localities need to pay attention first to the issue of improving the variety. Choose sugarcane varieties with high yield, high sugar content, drought resistance, good regeneration ability, slow or no flowering such as ROC10, ROC16, ROC23VN 85-1859, My55-14... Approach and apply biotechnology to create large quantities, short time, uniform and disease-free seed products, reduce costs. At the same time, continue to import, research and test to introduce new varieties with high productivity, quality and adaptability to meet production development requirements.
Sugar companies need to build seed production areas to gradually ensure that all newly planted sugarcane areas have quality-assured varieties, gradually replacing the current method of using raw sugarcane to make sugarcane seeds. In addition, this is a job that requires a lot of labor, especially during the harvest season, when sugarcane must be cut promptly to ensure sugar content, so promoting the application of production mechanization to free up labor for farmers is extremely necessary.
Build a reservoir to retain moisture for sugarcane irrigation, continue to invest in expanding drip irrigation technology. Increase the transfer of science and technology applications to people, focusing on high-tech application processes, biosafety and environmental protection so that producers can gradually apply them to sugarcane production.
Phu Huong
