The National Sugar Institute (NSI) would soon sign an agreement with Egypt with regard to technology exchange. The Institute would enter into an agreement with the Sugar Technology Research Institute (STRI), Egypt.
“A request along with draft MOU has been received from Sugar Technology Research Institute (STRI), Egypt where they have intended to work with NSI, Kanpur to carry out collaborative research on developing newer technologies and products for improving the revenue earning of the sugar factories.
“They have invited experts from NSI, Kanpur to visit the factories to gear up the work. This will help NSI, Kanpur also in understanding in sugar production process in beet sugar factories as many of the sugar factories in Egypt work on sugar beet as raw material. This will help in transmitting the acquired knowledge to the students who otherwise are conversant with production of sugar from sugarcane only”, Prof. Mohan added.
He said though the beetroot was the crop of the colder countries as it needed twenty to twenty two Celsius degree temperature for its farming. However, in India it could be grown from November to March on a large scale. The sugarcane growers could thus be able to earn more as by selling beetroot to sugar mills Professor Mohan said.
The sugar from beetroot would increase the sugar production by fifteen to twenty percent as compared to the sugar production from sugarcane.
On an experiment basis the cultivation of two varieties of beetroot of Belgium, and one of the varieties of India was done at the NSI farm. The yield was eighty tons per hectare of land. This was higher by six tons of sugarcane per hectare, he said.
“NSI Kanpur has moved further to become a “World Sugar Guru” by undertaking matters related to development of teaching and training facilities in Sugar Engineering, Sugar Technology, Sugarcane Development and other related subjects in many sugar producing countries. The NSI has already received request letters and draft Memorandum of Understanding (MOU’s) from Egypt, Sri Lanka and Nigeria. “We are expecting more such MOU’s with other sugar producing countries like Indonesia and Thailand,” he added.
“NSI has also received an offer from Nigerian Sugar Development Council (NSDC), Nigeria for assisting it in developing a sugar institute at Nigeria. Soon a detailed project report for the same shall be prepared training programmes for the personnel would be organized. A team of experts from NSI may visit Nigeria in July 2019 for the purpose” he added.
