India has been known as the original home of sugar and sugarcane. Indian mythology supports the above fact as it contains legends showing the origin of sugarcane. India is the second largest producer of sugarcane next to Brazil. Presently, about 4 million hectares of land is under sugarcane with an average yield of 70 tonnes per hectare.

India is the largest single producer of sugar including traditional cane sugar sweeteners, khandsari and Gur equivalent to 26 million tonnes raw value followed by Brazil in the second place at 18.5 million tonnes. Even in respect of white crystal sugar, India has ranked No.1 position in 7 out of last 10 years.

Traditional sweeteners Gur & Khandsari are consumed mostly by the rural population in India. In the early 1930’s nearly 2/3rd of sugarcane production was utilised for production of alternate sweeteners, Gur & Khandsari. With better standard of living and higher incomes, the sweetener demand has shifted to white sugar. Currently, about 1/3rd sugarcane production is utilised by the Gur & Khandsari sectors. Being in the small scale sector, these two sectors are completely free from controls and taxes which are applicable to the sugar sector.

The advent of modern sugar processing industry in India began in 1930 with grant of tariff protection to the Indian sugar industry. The number of sugar mills increased from 30 in the year 1930 - 31 to 135 in the year 1935-36 and the production during the same period increased from 1.20 lakh tonnes to 9.34 lakh tonnes under the dynamic leadership of the private sector.

The era of planning for industrial development began in 1950-51 and Government laid down targets of sugar production and consumption, licensed and installed capacity, sugarcane production during each of the Five Year Plan periods. The targets and achievements during various plan periods are given below.