ISMA and ICAR-ISRI Sign MoU to Build ₹80 Crore Sugarcane Seed Centre in Lucknow

The Indian Sugar & Bio-Energy Manufacturers Association (ISMA) on 13 August 2026 signed a memorandum of understanding with ICAR–Indian Sugarcane Research Institute (ICAR-ISRI), Lucknow, to establish an Advanced Centre for quality sugarcane seed production. The facility will be located on ISRI's Lucknow campus and will serve sugar mills operating in Uttar Pradesh and the wider subtropical cane-growing belt.

The initiative carries an estimated price tag of ₹80 crore, to be shared equally between the two partners. ICAR's contribution will be in the form of institutional services and scientific expertise, while ISMA will fund the physical infrastructure. The arrangement reflects a growing trend of structured public-private collaboration in Indian agricultural research, moving beyond grant-based models toward co-investment frameworks.

At its core, the proposed centre is designed to fix a persistent weak link in India's sugarcane value chain: the availability of certified, disease-free planting material at scale. Key functions will include:

• Accelerated multiplication of elite, newly released, and promising sugarcane varieties through protected and scientifically managed cultivation systems.
• Systematic replacement of pest- and insect-prone varieties across participating sugar mill command areas to lift both cane productivity and sugar recovery.
• Certification and quality monitoring, with genetic purity of planting material maintained through systematic tagging.
• Digital traceability of seed lots via QR codes linked to the Agriculture Ministry's Seed Net portal, allowing any stakeholder in the supply chain to verify variety details at any point.

The centre will also deliver training for cane development personnel and conduct field performance assessments, helping ensure that laboratory-level advances reach working farmers.

One of the more operationally significant aspects of the initiative is its plan to route improved planting material to farmers through participating sugar mills rather than through conventional seed retail channels. Mills have existing command-area relationships with growers and the logistical infrastructure to manage large-scale distribution — making them a natural conduit for variety adoption at speed.

ISMA acknowledged support from Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, ICAR Director General Mangi Lal Jat, Deputy Director General (crop science) D K Yadav, ISRI Director S N Sushil, and Joint Secretary (sugar) in the food ministry Ashwini Srivastava, signalling broad institutional backing for the project across multiple ministries.

ISMA Director General Deepak Ballani positioned the centre explicitly around farmer welfare rather than industry efficiency alone. He underlined that quality planting material is "the starting point for higher productivity, better sugar recovery and stronger farm incomes," and that the partnership is aimed at translating ICAR-ISRI's research into tangible, ground-level benefits by enabling faster and wider access to superior varieties through the mill network.

The statement from ISMA described the initiative as farmer-centric, with the broader ambition of building a more sustainable sugarcane ecosystem across the subtropical region — a goal that aligns with long-standing government pressure on the sugar sector to modernise agronomy practices and reduce dependence on older, lower-yielding cane varieties.