EMPLOYMENT POTENTIAL OF SUGARCANE PROCESSING INDUSTRIES - A CASE STUDY OF MUZAFFARNAGAR DISTRICT, U.P.

Abstract

The rapid growth of population in our country tends to impose a strong constraint on the standard of living, happiness and even survival of mankind through the spiralling consumption of the resources. Hence, growing unemployment has posed a serious challenge to our planners. In view of this fact, enormous strategies have been devised in our country to tackle the growing unemployment. The Mahalanobis Model called for a great deal of employment generation for improving the quality of life of the rural people which could be possible through agro-based industrialisation and one of these could be sugarcane processing and production. Sugarcane processing is an important agro-based industry which is of much significance due to agricultural oriented economy. Apart from the higher returns per hectare from production, sugarcane processing industry is one of the main source of direct and indirect employment to skilled and semi-skilled labour in rural areas. Many manufacturers like soft drinks, sugar machinery, confectionary, bakery, alcohol are directly related to this industry and these are also the potential source of employment to a large population. In this context, the present study is an attempt to examine the Employment Potential of Sugarcane Processing Industries. Muzaffarnagar district was purposively selected for the study. The study covered the trend in area, production and productivity of sugarcane, functional processes of the processing plants, investment behaviour technology and (iv) productivity in terms of output-labour ratio and benefit cost ratio of the selected processing plants, estimation of the direct and indirect employment and backward and forward linkages of the processing industry, estimation of the labour demand for sugarcane processing units, and the trend projections in terms of employment potential of sugarcane processing industry and also the future prospects. To achieve the objectives, processing units were randomly selected. Finally, out of 5 sugar factories, 67 mini sugar plants, 182 khandsari units, 4500 gur units, a sample of 3 sugar units namely Rohana, Shamli and Khatauli, 10 sulphur units, 18 khandsari units and 75 power kohlus were randomly selected. Since sugarcane cultivation is labour intensive, therefore, a sample of 75 farmers representing marginal (below 1 hectare), small (1 to 2.5 hectare), medium (2.5 to 4 hectare), and large (above 4 hectare) categories of the farmers were also randomly selected in order to study the labour utilisation for sugarcane cultivation and to compare this with that of the labour use in processing of sugarcane. Finally 34 marginal, 22 small, 10 medium and 9 large farmers were randomly selected. Further, for collecting the required data, an Intensive Survey Method was adopted. The data from the randomly selected farmers were collected through personal interviews on acreage, production of sugarcane, productivity and labour utilisation for sugarcane production for which a specially structured schedule/questionnaire were used. For the study of the processing of sugarcane the tirae series data related to labour, (v) wages and salaries of the skilled, serai skilled and unskilled labour, Crushing capacity of the units, Quantity of the processed product prices of the processed products and their substitutes, fixed and working capital etc. were collected from selected khandsari units, sugar units, sulphitation units and gur manufacturing units. Also,relevant Secondary data were collected. Each functional process was studied for which atleast 2 to 3 processing units from each category i.e. sugar factories, sulphitation plants, khandsari units and power kohlus, were critically studied in order to work out the average and total labour use. For the study of indirect employment, 15 confectionaries, 25 tea stalls and 15 bakeries were randomly selected and investigated. The collected data were analysed and important analytical tools were used for achieving the objectives. Growth in area, production and productivity were worked out in the study area. The study revealed that the area, production and productivity of sugarcane increased in the study area, with an interruption in some years on account of the drought conditions. Since investment is the most important factor in the creation of employment in various sectors or industries, therefore, investment behaviour in terras of capital-labour ratio, output-labour ratio, capital-output ratio and benefit cost ratio were computed in case of khandsari, sulphitation plants, gur manufacturing and sugar factories. The present worth of benefits and costs were, however, computed at 12% discount factor, in order to work out benefit cost ratio. The study (vii) crushing capacity, wages and salaries, output-labour ratio, price of the processed product and substitutes were estimated. The coefficient of multiple determination (R2 ) was also worked out for the fitted regression. The coefficient of multiple determination explained 73%, 56%, 86%, 72% and 75% variation in labour demand due to the combined effect of independent variables, in respect of sulphitation plants, Khatauli, Rohana and Shamli sugar factories and khandsari units. On the whole the most important factors which influenced the labour demand were found to be wages and salaries, output labour ratio and price of the substitute of the processed product. The export market for sugar and gur has grown in the past. The study area has exported gur, khandsari and sugar to other states in the past which earned a substantial income to growers as well as to wage earners and professional processors. The increased income to the growers, processors and others involved in processing, marketing and export market improved their level of living.