The sugar industry is one of India’s most significant agro-based sectors, playing a crucial role in rural economic development, employment generation, and energy security. India ranks among the world’s largest producers and consumers of sugar, supported by an extensive value chain encompassing sugarcane cultivation, milling, processing, and by-product utilization such as ethanol, bagasse-based power, and bio-fertilizers. Despite its scale and socio-economic importance, the industry faces persistent structural challenges including low sugar recovery rates, water-intensive cultivation, price volatility, delayed cane payments, outdated technology, and policy uncertainty. Government interventions—such as Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP), State Advised Price (SAP), export controls, and ethanol blending policies—strongly influence production and market outcomes. This paper analyzes the historical evolution, industry structure, production economics, policy framework, and challenges of the Indian sugar industry, and evaluates future prospects with emphasis on sustainability, diversification, and policy reforms.
Walhekar et al. (2026) studied this question.