Hon. Minister for Sugar Industry visit to India

Hon. Charan Jeath Singh, Minister of Ethnic Affairs and Sugar Industry in Hyderbad, Republic of India attending the ISSCT Congress of the International Society of Sugar Cane Technologies 2023

24th February, 2023

Hon. Charan Jeath Singh, Minister of Multi-Ethnic Affairs and Sugar Industry is currently in Hyderbad, Republic of India, attending a week long ISSCT Congress of the International Society of Sugar Cane Technologies that will conclude on Friday 24th February 2023. The Honorable Minister is being accompanied by senior officials of the Fiji Sugar Corporation and the Grower’s Council.

The event was inaugurated on Monday (20/02/2023) morning by Shri Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Road Transport and Highways of the Government of the Republic of India through virtual mode from the Capital.  Other important dignitaries that participated were Dr. Raul Castillo, Chairman ISSCR Council and Executive Committee including Mr. Ranjit Puri, Chairman Congress of the Organizing Committee.

The Congress kicked –off with an Introductory session, which was officiated by Shri Subodh Kumar Singh, Additional Secretary ( Sugar), Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution. Some of the prominent dignitaries that participated were Mr. Vivek M. Pittie, Congress Vice Chairman and Dr. Jean Claude Autrey, Secretary General, ISSCT.

After the above proceeding, the Hon. Charan Jeath Singh took time to meet with the above-mentioned dignitaries and toured around the stalls that were at the congress venue, the HICC Hyderabad.

There are currently more than 520 delegations participating in this event from 38 countries.

During first two days of the event, the Honorable Minister and his delegation attended a few relevant technical sessions and networking with the Miller and Vendors. They were also present during Fiji’s presentation at the R&D Sessions. Of interest to the Minister and his delegation during the networking sessions were a miniature modeled of a Sugar Cane Mill with some advance features that was on display. Our interest on this has been conveyed to the relevant engineering company and more interaction is expected to follow.

The Honorable Minister and his team also visited the Maducon Sugar Mill and Power Industries Ltd in Rajeswarapuram village in Khammam district and toured the mill, which also has an Ethanol and Cogeneration plant. The Minister and his team went through the whole processing stages at the Mill and also took time to meet the famers at their farms to get a firsthand experience on how they maintain their plantations. 

During the third day of the Congress, the Honorable Minister continued with his net workings and also had few bilateral meetings with the Australian Sugar Institute and a French Miller, eRCrane. Both are keen to proceed to a meaningful partnership to share their technical expertise and capacity building opportunities. What caught the team’s attention was a Harvester that is currently been showcased by the French Miller, which is highly mobile and is designed purposely to operate on uneven surfaces and slopes.

The team also met and engaged with the executives of SHAKTIMAN, who is the current supplier of Cane Harvester in Fiji and also inspected the upgraded version of the same.

The Honorable Minister and his team continued with networking (23/02) and visited an Agriculture Research Centre in Basanthpur- Mamidigi where they attended a briefing season by the field Principal Scientist (Sugar) Dr. M. Vijay Kumar, whose presentation focused on sustainable sugar cultivation.

An interactive session with the associated Sugar Experts and Farmers at Mamidigi also followed. One of the common topic that was shared during this session was on the declining interest of farmers in this sector due to lack of labor manpower and it was ascertained that the way forward was the mechanization of the planting of sugar cane.

The team took time to visit farms where the whole planting process has been mechanized with the assistance of some simple ingenuity starting from ploughing of the fields, crop maintenance, irrigation and to harvesting.

On the way back to Hyderbad, Hon. Singh and his team also visited two milling factories to observe its processing stages and at the same time take back to Fiji some good practices which could be incorporated for the efficiency of our mills. An area of interest on this visit was the sugar bagging process at these two millers.

Hon. Charan Jeeth Singh and his team will firm up their programme on Friday 24/02 before returning back to Fiji this weekend.

End.