Dalmia Sugar and Industries Limited works with one strong belief that in the business of sugar manufacturing, success is derived from the ability to engage with several farmers. This has thereby resulted in making sure that the company deepens its enduring relationships with cane farmers through fair and timely payments, fair weighment, and care and concern.

This story of how Dalmia Bharat Group graduated its farmer relationships to the next level goes back some years. Until 2013-14, Uttar Pradesh farms generated a low yield of cane per hectare.

Cane farmers followed conventional farming practices. Access to quality productivity-enhancing tools, inputs or insights (ratoon management, genetically modified seeds or pesticides) was inadequate. Water constraints were becoming evident.

‘Project Unnati’ was launched by DBSIL to address these inequities and achieve a recovery in excess of 10%.

This made the company embark on an exhaustive survey that revealed that only 20% of farms were covered by the early-maturing cane variety. This compelled the company to undertake some decisive steps and play the role of a responsible evangelist. The result is that the early maturing cane variety now covers 95% of its command areas and supply yields have climbed from around 400 quintals per hectare five years ago to 500 quintals per hectare today. This has increased farm coverage on the one hand and the yield on the other hand. This has helped transform the income of farmers across the commanding areas, deepening the cane-growing culture and creating a long-term pipeline of resource sustainability.

Knowledge Sharing Initiatives

Cane Development Assistant (CDA) Programmes

CDAs are responsible for all developmental activities in the farms including cane plantation, varietal improvement, yield improvement and cane survey plant protection measures.

There are 45-50 CDAs in each mill who supervise the entire core area of the company, ensure cane development activities, share knowledge with farmers and check diversion of cane to other factories from their assigned villages.

The ‘CDA and Officer training’ is a special programme, conducted indoors and outdoors, where the faculty is invited to learn different technical and behavioural issues.

Various research stations are visited to get insights on issues like improved method of plantation and peculiar symptoms of insect-pest and diseases.

The skills of the faculty are mapped, and changes in skills are documented for further improvement.

Each season, after spring planting, the CDA surveys the cane fields. They document different particulars such as the measurement of field dimensions, ratoon / plant crop, date of sowing and condition of crop variety of cane.

Earlier, this work was deputed to the chainman along with the CDA, but now the surveys are conducted through HHT which is assisted by a GPS system.

Kisan Seva Kendra

Each Dalmia sugar plant has set up at least four Kisan Seva Kendra (KSK) centres. These KSKs have their own defined proximity to serve the grower in the case of distribution of agrochemicals, seeds etc. They also provide information to the grower using the cane survey data. Each KSK covers 5-10 centres in a nearby locality. Each unit of DBSIL has several numbers of Kisan Seva Kendras (KSK ) as under:

Nigohi Unit*

1 Nigohi

2 Sindhauli

3 Pipariya Singhipuri

4 Satwan Khurd

Jawaharpur Unit*

1 Goriya

2 Neri

3 Mil Gate

4 Sitapur (Naveen Chauk)

Kolhapur Unit*

1 Sindhauli

2 Maccherehta

3 Gopalpur

4 Misrikh

5 Atrauli

6 Kothawan

7 Mil Gate

Cane Purchasing Centres

For online accurate cane weighment at the cane purchasing centres, a new technical device has been introduced, namely HHT. These devices have been installed in 40 such centres for each of the two plants at Ramgarh and Nigohi. Jawaharpur, on the other hand, has 30 such devices.

Each unit of DBSIL has a number of out cane purchasing centres as mentioned in the downloadable document linked below.

Download

Conferences and Forums

Farmer Meetings

Farmer meetings are conducted during each autumn and spring planting by the cane team at various villages. In these farmer meetings, growers are educated on various cultural issues like seed treatment, seed selection and varietal selection along with the best practices to be adopted with respect to yield maximisation. This results in increase in the area under cane production and the adoption of better plant protection measures.
In terms of supply, DBSIL makes sure that it goes a step ahead in educating the growers on minimisation of CUT TO CRUSH time and ways to supply clean fresh cane without green tops. Along with this, the team also organises village or corner meetings on criticality of different issues on a calendar basis.

Kisan Ghosti

Growers are one of the most important assets that DBSIL has. It conducts ‘Kisan Ghosti’ with more than 200 growers. Organised at the plant location on a quarterly basis with a theme of customised fertiliser and their importance, these events focus on the importance of autumn and spring planting.

Scientific Discussions

Innovation can bring about change and success anywhere, whether it pertains to high tech labs or simple farms. DBSIL invites scientists from sugarcane research stations and also invites key farmers to participate on key topics wherein their valuable suggestions and recommendations are discussed with the grower in detail. The growers find new ways to improve their productivity by adopting the recommended package of practices.

Awareness Programmes

SMS & Leaflets

SMS and leaflets are distributed in various locations to promote farming practices amongst farmers. The aim is to spread the message of best cane production techniques through leaflets and SMS’s.

Outdoor

Messages are put up in prominent areas of villages on different issues like eradication of obsolete sugarcane variety and promotion of high sugared and matured varieties. Wall paintings are also used to capture the continuous attention of the growers.

Roadshow

Road show rallies are organised on major command routes area. During the course of these rallies, announcements for various farming practices to be followed are made and pamphlets for personal guidance are also distributed.

Nukkad Natak

Nukkad Natak, short-stories and puppet shows are organised with the aim to spread the knowledge of selected varieties of sugarcane. The varieties are highly sugared and are a major focus area for the cane department.

Demonstration of Farming

At each unit, DBSIL has established several demonstration plots at farmers’ fields. With the help of these units, DBSIL demonstrates various scientific practices including trench planting, nucleus seed nurseries, ratoon management, propping up of cane, yield improvement trials, plant protection trials, drip irrigation and much more.

‘Khet Diwas’ is organised on different phases of the crop growth to show the results of the growers as well as the field staff for aided motivation to work on the crop.

The farms have a bank of different promising high sugared varieties and are used for identification training of the field staff as well as growers. The various trials along with control are also conducted for the effectiveness of different agrochemicals and potentiality of production in case of various cane varieties.

First Plot Prep

The Unit Head and Cane Head personally visit the first sowing plot of the season & inaugurate the same with an Archana Puja. This creates a sense of motivation amongst the growers of that area that helps them start off with the planting season.

Farmer's Testimonials

Sukhwinder Singh - Farmer - Dalmia Sugar Mill, Uttar Pradesh

Gayabak Singh - Farmer - Dalmia Sugar Mill, Uttar Pradesh

Initiatives by DBSIL

Enhancing Fertility

Educating Farmers

Development of Irrigation
Resources

Improving Techniques

Resource Conservation

Mechanisation Support
Programmes

A Glimpse of the comprehensive farmers’ training program conducted on October 27, 2023. The session featured notable personalities such as Dr. PK Kapil, Assistant Director of Ganna Kisan Sansthan SPN, Dr. Sanjeev Pathak, Dr. Arun Singh from UPCSR SPN, and the Regional Manager from IFFCO, along with the Cane team. Over 600 farmers from the factory’s surrounding areas, specifically Unit Ramgarh, attended the event.

Farmer Subsidiary and Services

A new innovation has been introduced in all 3 sugar units of DBSIL which is an automatic trench cutter planter.

These are provided to contractors who have tractors with more than 60 H.P., and further plantation is done based on subsidised rates.

DBSIL also provides trench openers to open trenches on fields at an extremely subsidised rate.

The general grower believes the ratoon crop, neglected by the growers of central U.P., to be a gift of God.

Each season, an insecticidal cum fertiliser foliar spray campaign is conducted in about 1/3rd the area of the total rationing.

The company also aims to provide a 50% subsidy to the growers and incur an amount of Rs.10-15 lacs for each plant.

DBSIL with SARD, an NGO, is working for a society in 3 areas; health, education, and generation of livelihood. The CSR activity has been initiated from Jawaharpur sugar unit by adopting 12 villages presently. Two villages are adopted at Nigohi and Ramgarh sugar units.

The company has organised health camps and runs schools named HAMARI PATHSALA, to improve education for children of rural societies. Training programmes are organised for rural youths.

Press Mud

The Nigohi-Ramgarh press mud filter-cake is distributed to growers for soil enrichment.

At the Jawaharpur unit, bio-composting is carried out. The organic manure is distributed to growers at subsidised rates under the trade name of Dalmia Sanjeevani.

Soil Testing

Soil testing laboratories have been set up at two of the group’s plants, namely Nigohi and Jawaharpur. The labs have state-of-the-art facilities for the analysis of macro as well as micronutrients. In the off season, the soil samples are collected from different villages for testing. Based on the testing, the recommendation of fertilisers is provided to growers based on the sample analysis report which in turn helps the growers to take maximum benefits of fertiliser application and better nutrient management.

Other Initiatives

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