Services

 The principal objective of NFCSF is to promote and develop  cooperatives of sugarcane growers and to provide support, services and guidance to its affiliated cooperative sugar factories and State and zonal level Federations of cooperative sugar factories for their efficient and sustained working.  In pursuance of this object, the NFCSF has been providing the following services to its member factories.

  Technical Services

The technical and promotional cell comprising experts in various fields i.e. Engineering, Sugar Technology, Sugar Agronomy, Financial Management, Man Power Planning, Cogeneration and By-Products etc. of NFCSF has been providing technical and promotional services to its member cooperative sugar factories in order to improve their technical performance. The main objectives of the cell are to provide technical know how, advice and other assistance in selection, purchase, installation, operation and maintenance of plant and machinery, assistance in selection of technical personnel for member factories and suggesting ways and means to increase capacity utilisation and operational efficiency of existing sugar factories. The cell has also provided its services for establishment of new cooperative sugar factories in different parts of the country right from inception to commissioning i.e. preparation of project and feasibility report, cane development, site selection, tender documents for plant and machinery, project scheduling, manpower planning, inspection of plant and machinery at manufacturers works, project monitoring, erection, commissioning and so forth. In case of working sugar factories, the cell has prepared projects for modernisation/expansion schemes, energy conservation, improvement in working efficiency, improvement in quality of sugar and optimisation of crushing capacity. The experts of the cell who have wide national and international experience deal with various engineering, manufacturing and management aspects of the sugar factories. The volume of work handled by the technical cell of NFCSF can be gauged by the fact that since its establishment in 1977 as many as 160 new cooperative sugar factories have been set up and 70 cooperative sugar factories have availed of its services for expansion purpose. Besides NFCSF has also undertaken rehablitation packages for 24 sick cooperative sugar mills of the country. In addition to above, 13 nos. DPR for optimization / rehabilitation-cum-modernisation & balancing of the sugar factories, 4 nos. DPR for new sugar factories, 3 nos. DPR for cogeneration and 3 nos. DPR for ethanol projects have been prepared.

 The services are also provided for sugarcane development varietal development and improvement in agricultural practices for improving yield, to reduce cost of cultivation, DPR for Ethanol, Alcohol, Co-generation is also being provided.  Inspection of machinery at manufacturer works is also done as per NFCSF  standard procedure.

 The Cell has also gained international experience through preparation of Detailed Project Report for new sugar mills in Nepal and Kenya.

 The Experts of this Federation have travelled widely in India and abroad and have visited the sugar industries of Mauritius, Reunion, Thailand, South Africa, Pakistan, Australia, Kenya, Nigeria, Vietnam, Colombia, USA etc.  They have also attended several International Conferences and Congresses of the International Society of Sugar Cane Technologists, ICUMSA, F.A.O. etc. 

Jobs Completed

35 - New sugar plants of 1250 TCD capacity

51 - New sugar plants of 2500 TCD capacity.

36 - Expansion projects upto 10000 TCD capacity.

08 - Co-generation projects.

09 - Distillery / Ethanol Projects

Nepal - DPR for new sugar project.

Kenya - Survey for a new sugar plant

 Promotional Service

The technical and promotional cell prepares the Indian Standard Specifications for machinery and components of sugar factories for approval of Bureau of Indian Standard. The representatives of the cell also participates in various seminars, conferences – and workshops – both national and international, to gather new know-hows and also to present their own views for the promotion of their member factories. The cell also member of the Committee, Government of India for upgrading the Standard Specifications for 2500, 5000, 7500 TCD plants.

 Economic Consultancy

 The financial wing of NFCSF has been helping new cooperative sugar factories and expansion projects in obtaining term loans from central financial institutions, preparing of feasibility and project reports, cash flow etc. The Financial wing also prepares memoranda for submission to Commission for Agricultural Costs & Prices (CACP) and Bureau of Industrial Costs and Prices (BICP) for fixation of minimum sugarcane price and levy sugar price so that the interest of the sugarcane farmers are taken care of. These are very exhaustive work, done after collection of data from factories and compilation of them. The wing also looks into the credit, excise and taxation problems of the member factories to ensure smooth functioning of the factories. The Financial Cell is also prepared Standard and Uniform method of Accounting & Costing in sugar factories.

 Legal Service

 The sugar industry is in a transitional state, from a highly regulated one it is moving towards complete deregulation, in the process the industry has to face many problems, which harm the industry. In a world where justice is meted out only on demand, the NFCSF takes up the cudgels on behalf of their members who are mainly poor and marginal farmers. It guides the members on various legal issues and also takes legal recourse on behalf of members, if the matter cannot be settled amicably.

Developmental Activity

 In order to motivate and make the cooperative sugar factories achieve their best, the NFCSF introduced a scheme of ‘Efficiency Awards’ in 1985, which over the years has added many dimensions to it. Beginning with ‘Technical Efficiency Awards in 1985, NFCSF introduced ‘Cane Development Efficiency Award’ in 1990-91, ‘Best Utilization of By-products’ in 1994-95, ‘Overall Best Cooperative Sugar Factory’ in 1995-96 and ‘Financial Management Award’ in 1994-45. The current scheme of awards welcomes a healthy competition amongst cooperative sugar factories.

Considering the need for making Indian sugar globally competitive to meet the challenges of liberalisation policy, the WTO and ICUMSA norms, the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories Limited (NFCSF), set up the Research & Development and Training Center at FC-33, Jasola, New Delhi. The Center organized a workshop on "Comprehensive Approach for Sugar Complex" in Shimla from September 22-24, 2005, a five day’s seminar on "Energy Conservation and Reduction in Cost of Sugar Production in Sugar Industry" was organized at the R&D and Training Center in Jasola from May 15-19, 2006 and also in Sikkim from June 23 – 27, 2006.

 As the future of Indian Sugar Industry will largely depend on how cost effective and technically advanced, the industry can be in the field and factory, the thrust of the activities of Research and Development are at present focused on :-

• To improve the quality of sugarcane through high sugar content, early maturing, its management for insects, pests and  diseases, better recovery and yields.
• Improving the efficiency productivity and quality of sugar to make it internationally competitive.
• Reducing inventory and maintenance cost.
• Reducing steam, fuel, power and water consumption.
• Proper utilisation of all by-products of the sugar industry and setting up co-generation and ethanol projects.

  To ensure that the Research and Development cover all areas of sugarcane, sugar, their down stream products and allied products, NFCSF constituted the following committee of experts in various fields from major sugar producing States and research institutes.

Management

1.     Mr. Vinay Kumar, Chairman

        Managing Director, NFCSF

2.     Mr. R.P. Singhal Member

        Ex-Chief Director (Sugar)

3.     Managing Director,

        The Punjab Member ,State Federation of Cooperative Sugar Mills Ltd.

4.    Mr. R.P. Singh, Member

       Cane Adviser,

       The Haryana State Federation of Cooperative Sugar Mills Ltd.

5.    General Manager (Tech.), Member

       The Uttar Pradesh Cooperative Sugar Factories Federation Ltd.

6.    Professor (Sugar Technology), Member

       Vasantdada Sugar Institute

7.    Director Member

       National Sugar Institute

8.    Professor (Sugar Technology), Member

       National Sugar Institute

9.    Adviser (Technical), Member

       The Tamil Nadu State Federation of

       Cooperative Sugar Factories Ltd.

10.  Technical Adviser (Engg.) Member

        Karnataka State Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories Ltd.

11.  Mr. D.K. Jauhari Member

        NFCSF

12.  Mr. Jasbir Singh Member

       Technical Adviser, NFCSF

13.  Mr. A.K. Jain Member

        Financial Adviser, NFCSF

14.   Dr. J.P. Singh, Member

        Chief Cane Adviser, NFCSF

15.   Mr. B. Shivanna, Member Secretary

        Chief Sugar Technologist, NFCSF

As the Indian sugar industry has vast potentials and there is a whole new world for the Indian sugar industry to explore and attain heights the aim of NFCSF is to make sugar complexes, where utilisation of sugarcane and sugar is made to the fullest by setting up allied industries based on all products and by-products of sugarcane and sugar.

Sugar Policy Matters

Besides informing the member factories and State Federations about sugar releases, major developments on policy matters, pricing and other matters relating to sugar industry and undertaking follow-up action on factories representations and problems, the NFCSF represents to the Government on important policy issues for the welfare of their members.

Sugarcane Development

As sugarcane forms the backbone of sugar industry, NFCSF has been laying emphasis on development of sugarcane. Therefore, besides helping the sugar factories to get loan from Sugar Development Fund, the Chief Cane Adviser of NFCSF advices the members on latest technologies on sugarcane agronomy, better cultivation practices by adopting new high sugared content, early maturing new high yielding varieties of cane to increase sugarcane yield and sugar recovery in the country. The Chief Cane Adviser also advises the members on pests and diseases management in sugarcane field. 200 SDF loan applications have been prepared.

Statistical Information

NFCSF maintains up-to-date statistical information on all aspects of sugar, sugarcane and allied products.

 In order to imbibe a spirit of healthy competition amongst member cooperative sugar factories for improvement in their technical performance, NFCSF introduced Technical Efficiency Awards in its Silver Jubilee Year  (1985). Encouraged by the results of healthy competition of Technical Efficiency Awards, the NFCSF had introduced similar awards for Cane Development, Financial Management & Overall Best Cooperative Sugar Factory in subsequent years.

Efficiency Awards

 A Committee comprising experts from the Board of Directors of NFCSF, technical experts from NFCSF and other organisations like National Sugar Institute, Kanpur, Vasantdada Sugar Institute, Pune, NCDC and representatives of State Federations formulates the guidelines and scrutinizes the proposals every year.