The technology, called `Meristem culture', can almost double the yield and has been tested by a handful of farmers and sugarcane factories in Maharashtra and Gujarat. Field trials testify that the yield, which usually ranges between 40 and 45 tonnes per acre, can rise to as much as 78 tonnes per acre.

However, farmers, who are used to conventional planting material supplied by local sugar cooperatives, are reluctant to adopt the new system for three reasons: easy access to planting material supplied by local cooperatives; faith in a time-tested system evolved by their forefathers; the costs of the new technology which pegs the price of a single sapling of Meristem culture at Rs 4.

Money has also deterred cooperatives from patronising the new system as bankers will notfinance the additional burden as the Meristem culture is yet to get the official stamp of the Agriculture Ministry.

However, some enterprising cooperatives have conducted field trials and secured very promising results, like the Sayan cooperative at Sayan in Gujarat and the Nashik cooperative at Palse. The Chopada cooperative too has offered to experiment with the new technique with assistance from the Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India.

Vasant Baviskar, executive director of the Nashik cooperative, told The Indian Express that the technology has produced an enhanced yield of 78 tonnes per acre and an additional sugar recovery of one per cent.

Successful field trials have also been conducted at Majalgaon in Beed, where a farmers' rally was conducted on April 14 to educate sugarcane growers on the new technique. Dr Vasant Savangikar, who has been experimenting with the Meristem culture since the last seven years after taking the cue from Dr Ratikant Hendre (who had firstattempted Meristem culture in 1973 in Pune), says there are few takers.

He says though a Meristem sapling costs about Rs 4, the increased yield would translate into a profit of Rs 18,000 per acre. Dr Savangikar has contacted research institutes attached to the Ministry of Agriculture as well as agricultural universities and sugar cooperatives, to popularise the technique. The new system would take care of the dwindling cane yield, which has caused a sugarcane scarcity in the state, where about 30 of the 107 cooperatives have been shut this season.

Dr Savangikar's claims have also been tested by Dr V R Kale, former director of the Mahatma Phule Agricultural University at Rahuri. Kale told The Indian Express that he has found that the yield almost doubles and three generations of Meristem were disease-free. What's more, it also increases sugar recovery up to one per cent and requires less water.

Dr Savangikar has approached the National Bank for Agricultural Research and Development (NABARD), which isconsidering a proposal to undertake a captive sugarcane plantation through Meristem culture in 500 acres. The proposal, if approved, would be financed by NABARD's Research and Development Fund.

NABARD's Nashik branch manager, S P Bhandare, says a sugarcane field has to be kept fallow for a year after three harvests and oilseeds must be planted to rejuvenate the soil. However, farmers usually do not pay attention to soil fertility and continue using age-old planting material, resulting in falling yields with low sugar content.

The state's sugarcane industry, which had a surplus production about two years ago, currently faces a shortage of cane. Dr Savangikar, on the other hand, claims it is possible to grow 80 to 100 tonnes of cane per acre and increase the farmer's net profit to Rs 35,000-50,000 per acre from the present Rs 5,000-15,000 per acre. But there's a catch: they will have to adopt the Meristem culture and still the voice of their forefathers.