Bihar cane industry has set the ambitious target of increasing the sugar cane production in the state to 31.5 MMT over the next five cropping seasons, as per the draft proposal of the new state agriculture road map prepared for 2017-22 period. Sugar cane production in the 2016-17 cropping season till March 31 was 18.23 MMT vs 13.44 MMT produced in 2011-12, an increase of 4.79 MMT over five years during 2012-17. The draft proposal discussed at the Kisan Samagam on 16 June. Farmers also gave their suggestions for inclusion in the final draft of the agriculture road map. Achieving the target set by the cane industry might be an uphill task on the face of it, but the department sources said it is achievable because the cane production (measured in terms of MT/per hectare) in the state had increased over the last five years. The trend regarding various aspects of sugar cane production as reflected during the second agriculture road map (2012-17) has been positive. Area under sugar cane cultivation is 0.264 mln hectare and to further increase the cane cultivation area to 0.35 mln ha by 2022. Sugar cane productivity is 69.06 tn/ha by March this year. The third agriculture road map (2017-22) has envisaged the sugar cane productivity of the state to be 90 tn/ha.