DCM Shriram is an Indian conglomerate with a turnover of approximately 1.24 billion USD. It operates sugar mills and has undertaken a sustainability program for sugarcane farmers since 2008. The program involves training farmers, improving soil health, water management, mechanization, and digital inclusion. It covers over 250,000 farmers cultivating 177,000 hectares. Key impacts include a 20-25% increase in productivity, creation of self-help groups, and saving 735 billion liters of water over 6 years. Challenges include small landholdings and water availability issues, which the program addresses through demonstrations and good practices. The program has received several awards and certifications like Bonsucro for 5000

1. Bonsucro Certification: Story from India
Partnering with Farmers Growing with Trust
Raja Srivastava
Addl. Vice President - Sugar Business
DCM Shriram Limited
Date : 19.10.2022

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Leading business conglomerate (turnover approx. 1.24 Billion USD)
DCM Shriram Ltd.
‒Sugar
‒Co-gen power & Distillery
‒Urea
‒Seeds
‒Crop care
‒Speciality Chemicals
‒SSP
‒Caustic soda
‒Chlorine
‒PVC Resins
‒Calcium Carbide
‒Cement
Chlor-Vinyl
Business Portfolio
‒Fenesta
Value Added
Agribusiness
Sugar Mills
1. Ajbapur in district Lakhimpur Kheri
2. Rupapur in district Hardoi
3. Hariawan in district Hardoi
4. Loni in district Hardoi
Capacity – 41500 TCD
Sugar Production ~ 8 to 9 Lac MT
Cogeneration – 155 MW
Distilleries
1. Ajbapur in district Lakhimpur Kheri
2. Hariawan in district Hardoi
Capacity – 540 KLD
Ethanol Production ~ 180 Mn litre annually
Sugar Business
Company – an overview

3. Sustainability Journey
‘08 ‘09 ‘11 ‘12 ‘13 ‘14 ‘16 ‘17
Diagnostic Study
(Ajbapur)
Phase I
Independent evaluation
shows project farmers
register 69% increase in
farm productivity
Project scaled-up to Gate
Region of 4 units, 80,000
farmers. Expanded
scope and Partnership
with Solidaridad
HUF joins project to
support Water Use
Efficiency
Phase IV
Project extended till
2019, with IFC &
Solidaridad. Coca cola
also joining in
‘20
Phase II
Project Expanded -
Inner Gate area in all 4
units – 12,000 farmers
Proof of concept pilot
kicked off with 2,000
farmers in Ajbapur
and Loni.
Climate Smart
Agriculture Project
in Rupapur
Phase V:
Project extended till
2025, with IFC and
Solidaridad.
Major components:
- Dairy & Gender
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4. Start of Sustainability
initiatives
2008
2018
2019
2019
2020
2021
Bonsucro Certification
for 5000 small holder
farmers
• Bonsucro Member
• Pre-assessment Audit
Trainings
- Chennai
- Bangaluru
- New Delhi
Bonsucro Inspire
Awards for
Inspiring
Sustainability
Partnerships
Bonsucro Inspire
Awards for increase in
productivity and saving
275 billion liters of
water
The Bonsucro Journey
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DCM Shriram’s Sustainable Sugarcane Production Policy
DCM Shriram is focused on the intensive cane development:
• Introducing new technologies & initiatives
• Implementing new scientific agronomical practices in sugarcane cultivation.
The core of the vision is to:
• Improve the productivity
• Minimizing cane cultivation cost
• Thereby improving socio economic status of :
- Employees
- Growers
- Contractors
- Transporters
- Labors
- Agro Technology service providers (ATSP)
This will result in conserving soil health, water and environment.
Budget is separate for Cane Development & CSR funds are not utilized in Sustainable Cane Projects

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Sustainability –embedded into business strategy

7. Our approach towards Sustainability
Collaboration Cooperation Coordination
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Multi Stakeholder Sustainable Sugarcane Program
Increasing the income
of farmers
Use of ICT for
smart farm
Input supply to
farmers
Drip Irrigation
Mechanization
Mechanization
on Custom Hire
Villages Covered - 2312
Cane Area - 177K Ha
Farmers reach - 250K
Implementation
Partner
Project Lead
& Advisory
Varietal
Improvement
(Temasek Holdings)
Subject Experts – 7
Extension workers – 300
Infra Support : Soil Lab – 4
Bio Control Lab – 2
Suvidha Kendra – Call Centre
E-Suvidha App– One Stop Solution

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Pillars of Sustainable Sugarcane Program
Training & Capacity Building
Water Use Efficiency
Soil Health Management
Mechanization: Custom-hiring
model through micro-entrepreneurs
Good Agronomic Practices
Bio-control for sustainable
sugarcane production
Inclusion of Gender
Increasing Income of farmers
Digitization in Agriculture

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Training & Capacity Building
• Trainings for farmers & extension staff
on Climate Smart Sugarcane cultivation
• Scale up via:
 videos,
 flipcharts,
 e-learning modules,
 mobile training vans and
 demo plots
• Technical trainings on the following :
 Crop management
 GAP
 Integrated Pest management:
- Mechanical control
- Biological Control
- Chemical Control
Farmers Training
Nukkad Natak
Demonstration Plot
Kissan Gosthi

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Soil Health Management
Focus on improving physical,
biological & chemical health of soil
 Soil analysis & distribution of
Soil Health Card
 Focus on organic & green
manuring
 Compost pits
 Vermi Composting
 Balanced nutrition management
 Promoting PSB & Azotobactor
 Deep ploughing
Compost Pits Green Manuring
Vermi Compost Pits
Press Mud distribution

12. Water Management - Demand side initiatives
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Furrow Irrigation
Trash Mulching
Laser Land Leveler
Drip Irrigation
Demand side management
techniques
 Trash Mulching
 Drip Irrigation
 Solar with drip
 Skip Furrow
 Laser Land Levelling
 Composting
 Green manuring
Pilots on Solar with Drip systems

13. Water Management - Supply side initiatives
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Village Ponds Rejuvenated
Check Dam Constructed
Converted Recharge well
Supply side structures
 Rejuvenation of ponds
 Recharge wells
 Check dams

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Water Saved: 735 Billion Liters
735
Billion Liters
In 6 years
275 billion liters
of water saved
in 3 years
(2016-17, 2017-18 & 2018-19)
299 billion liters
of water saved
in 2 years
(2019-20 & 2020-21)
161 billion liters of water saved
in 1 year (2021-22)
Certified by Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research, Lucknow
(apex Central Govt. body for Research on Sugarcane)

15. Mechanization
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Promote introduction of new technologies/ practices
Project activities focuses on:
 Development of rural entrepreneurs
 Development of Agri-tech Centers
 Demonstrations
 Mechanization fairs
 Collaboration with Service Providers
Development of Custom Hire Centres:
 Survey & recognize potential CHCs from local area
 Demonstrated Value Proposition
 Support provided:
- Capacity building & Financial Literacy
- Linkage with bank for loan on new equipments
Partnerships to develop CHC model: EM3

16. Farmers connect: Mechanization Fair
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17. Farmers connect: Women Farmers
 Training/capacity building of women
on sugarcane cultivation & dairy value
chain
 Promote intercropping- specifically
leguminous crop as fodder for cattle
 Developing woman entrepreneurs– for
developing Single-bud nurseries of
sugarcane & Dairy
 Exposure visits- for establishing dairy
demonstrations
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Self Help Groups (SHG) for Women Empowerment
SHGs formed in the catchment area of DCM Shriram for production
of single bud sugarcane plantlets:
– SHGs formed - 74
– Members enrolled – 765
Company Support :
– Training & Capacity building
– Poly tray & cocopeat at subsidized rate
– Marketing of plantlets

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Digital
Inclusion of
Sugarcane
farmers
Tele conferencing
• 5 Subject Matter Experts
• 26860 farmers have been covered till date
Farmer Connect – WhatsApp
• Messages/ Videos created by Experts
• 284 Groups covering 56K farmers
E-Suvidha App (One stop solution)
• Real-time information
• Crop Advisory
• Query Management
• Weather forecast
DCM Shriram Suvidha Kendra
• First Call centre in UP sugar mill
• In-bound - 550 calls per day
• Outbound - 2000 calls per day
E-Learning App (Meetha Sona)
• 6 modules on good agri-practices
Information & Communication during Pandemic

20. Farmers connect: Social Media
Whats App
YouTube
(गन्ना मित्र - डीसीएि श्रीराि शुगर)
Facebook
(गन्ना मित्र - डीसीएि श्रीराि शुगर)
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• Subscribers – 7.6k
Farmers Enrolled – 75K • Likes - 5.4k
• Followers - 7k
• Out reach - 144.6k

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 DCM Shriram partners with Boomitra to incentivize farmers by Oct. 2022. By 2024 the
program aims to cover at least 0.4 million acres.
 Boomitra incentivizes farmers to enhance their Soil Health. This will help in increasing the
yield of the farmers & hence making DCM Sugar’s supply chain more resilient to climate change.
 Boomitra works with the worlds Leading Standards Body – Verra to generate Verified Carbon
Credits (A Commodity).
 Boomitra has developed proprietary technology to remotely measure the increases in Soil
Carbon (for creating Verified Carbon Units) using 100+Satellites.
 Currently operates ìn 6 countries.
Benefitting farmers through Carbon Credit

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Impact of Sustainable Sugarcane cultivation
20-25% increase in
productivity in last
4-5 years
74
Self Help Groups
Digitalization of
value chain
20,041
Compost Pits
285
Micro
entrepreneurs
Bonsucro
Certification
3 sugar mills
5,000 farmers
735 bln ltrs water
saved in last 6
years
18,100 Ha
Intercrop

23. Challenges & Mitigation
- Fragmentation of land holding -small and marginal growers were finding farming unviable.
- Water availability has been going down with intensive cultivation, over-exploitation of ground water and
climate change.
- Deterioration in soil health on account of over dose/ imbalanced use of chemical fertilizer and non-
replenishment of organic material.
- Literacy issue – low level of literacy was a barrier in adoption of modern practices
- Diversion of labour to non agriculture activities
- Lack of interest from educated youth for agriculture.
Mitigation
- Demonstrations plots were used as virtual class room.
- Good Agronomic practices were publicized in mass through farmer meetings, audio-visual aids, digital and
social media.
- Ease of doing work was taken care through our drive for mechanization
- Custom-hire model was introduced for the farmers who couldn’t afford costly machinery.
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24. Achievements, Awards and Recognitions
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- Pushpa Devi was awarded in the
category of Progressive Farmer by Mr.
Surya Pratap Shahi (Cabinet Minister for
Agriculture, Agriculture Education and
Agriculture Research, Government of UP)
- Mishri Lal was awarded in the
category of Progressive Farmer
by Mr. Surya Pratap Shahi
(Cabinet Minister for Agriculture,
Agriculture Education &
Agriculture Research,
Government of UP)
Shri Arvind Kumar from Purwa
Dewariya village of Hariawan Sugar
Mill, obtained sugarcane yield of
2631 quintals per hectare

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Awards and Recognitions
Special Recognition
Award at the CII
National Competition
and Summit on LEAN
2020
10th Global Agriculture
Leadership Award 2017 for CSR
Leadership by Indian Council of
Food and Agriculture
CII National Award
for Excellence in
Water Management
2018 in “Beyond the
Fence” category.
Bonsucro Inspire
Awards 2019 for
Inspiring Sustainability
Partnerships
Bonsucro Inspire Awards 2020
for increase in Productivity and
saving 275 billion liters of water.
- "Noteworthy Project in Water
Management” by CII National
Award for Excellence in
Water Management 2020
Top 5 short listed companies
for Financial Times Global
Transformational Awards in
sustainability in 2018

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CII National Award for Excellence in
Water Management – 2021 in “Beyond
the Fence” category.
FICCI Sustainable Agriculture
Awards – 2021 for Soil and Water
resource conservation program
Leadership role in Agriculture
Processing Award – 2021.
Hosted by Krishi Udyami
Krishak Vikas Chamber
Awards and Recognitions

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rajasrivastava@dcmshriram.com