Our Achievements

On account of its organic relationship with the sugar industry and sugarcane farmers, the Institute has achieved a distinguished position in the sugar industry. Its massive extension services has enabled the industry in the State to record substantial achievement in the areas of Human Resource Development, improvement in processing, diversion into by-product industry and generally towards improvement in the productivity both in the field as also in the factory. On account of these accomplishments, the sugar industry in the State of Maharashtra has acquired many outstanding attributes. The present yields of sugarcane in the State of Maharashtra are better than most other States in the country. On the processing side too, in many areas such as Reduced Mill Extraction, Total Losses, Boiling House Efficiency, etc. the industrys performance is far superior to those in other states in India and compares favourably even with reference to many other countries of the world.

As the industry is working in rural set up, it looks after the welfare of the rural environment in which it operates. It has therefore, become a catalyst for growth and in the process holds itself responsible for bringing about all-round development in economic, educational, social and infrastructure. Perhaps its most important contribution is in introducing culture to rural population. This is changing the mindset of the rural population, making them more professional, leaving aside the age-old and giving way to a steady growth and development.

Since establishment, VSI has churned out a large number of research papers, completed several projects, developed diagnostic and control systems, brought about process optimisation and obtained patents. Notable among its innovations are automatic drip irrigation system for cane, vermi-compost from municipal and farm waster, bio-fertilizers, biological control of pests and diseases, elite cane varieties through tissue culture, microprocessor-based pH control, online estimation of brix using nucleonic density meter, automatic estimation of moisture in bagasse, development of ERP and other software, chemical fastest kits, reduction in sugar losses, improvement in the quality of sugar during processing, improvement in capacity utilization and optimisation of energy in factories and development of by-products e.g. oxalic acid and sugar esters.

After an existence of over a quarter of a century, VSI stand tall today. It has moved from strength to strength over the years and has emerged stronger tackling many challenges. In the way, the Institute has withstood the test of time and continues to operate on principles on which it was established. VSI has, thus, carved a niche for itself in the world when it comes to sugarcane research. VSI is now poised to be an ever-important player in the Indian Sugar Industry in years to come......