FRP for Sugarcane for 2026–27 Season

Syllabus: GS3 /Economy

In News

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by the Prime Minister, has approved the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) of sugarcane for 2026–27 at ₹365 per quintal for a 10.25% recovery rate.

Sugar Production in India

India became the world’s top sugar producer in 2021-2022, surpassing Brazil.
Location of Sugar Industry in India: Sugar industry is broadly distributed over two major areas of production:

Sugarcane – Uses

It belongs to the bamboo family of plants and is indigenous to India.
About two-third of the total sugarcane produced in India is consumed for making gur and khandsari and only one-third of it goes to sugar factories.
It also provides raw material for manufacturing alcohol.
Bagasse, the crushed cane residue, can be more beneficially used for manufacturing paper.
Ethanol production – It is also an efficient substitute for petroleum products and a host of other chemical products.
India has become the 3rd largest country in the world in ethanol production after the USA and Brazil.

Conditions for growth

Crop duration: 10-15 months, and even 18 months to mature, depending upon geographical conditions.
Soil: Sugarcane can tolerate any kind of soil that can retain moisture. Examples – loams, clayey, black cotton soil, brown or reddish loam and laterites.
It should be rich in nitrogen, calcium and phosphorus.
Climate: Hot and Humid (21-27 °C of temperature and 75-150 cm of rainfall).

Government steps

Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) of sugarcane

Recommended by – Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP)
Objective – to assure margins on account of profit and risk to farmers, irrespective of the fact whether sugar mills generate profit or not.

Syllabus: GS1/Places in News

Context

India and Jamaica signed three Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) in health cooperation, solarisation, and broadcasting during the External Affairs Minister official visit.

Jamaica

Jamaica is a mountainous island in the Caribbean Sea, situated south of Cuba.
It is part of the chain of Caribbean islands called the Greater Antilles, along with Cuba, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico.
It is the third largest island in the Caribbean Sea, after Cuba and Hispaniola.
Jamaica became independent from the United Kingdom in 1962 but remains a member of the Commonwealth.
Jamaica was formed when the North American and Caribbean tectonic plates collided about 25 million years ago.
Major Mountain Ranges: Blue Mountains, John Crow Mountains, Don Figuero Mountains, Cockpit Country.
Major Rivers: Black River, Rio Cobre, Rio Grande.

Syllabus: Miscellaneous

Context

Two Indian journalists named Anand RK and Suparna Sharma along with Natalie Obiko Pearson won the Pulitzer Prize 2026.

Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize was established in 1917, named in honour of newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, and is administered by America’s Columbia University.
There are 23 categories. In 22 of them, winners get a certificate and 15,000 US dollars. But only one category, Public Service, gets a gold medal.
It recognises excellence across journalism, literature and music composition.

Previous Indian Winners

Gobind Behari Lal: First from India to win the Pulitzer Prize for journalism in 1937. He was a member of the Ghadar Party in America.
Siddhartha Mukherjee: Won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction for his demystification of cancer in The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer.
Danish Siddiqui: Photojournalist and a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, awarded in 2018 for Rohingya crisis coverage and in 2020 for his powerful images capturing the human toll of COVID-19 in India.