Sugarcane shortage affects crushing in Haryana

So far just 37 lakh quintals of sugarcane have been crushed by the cooperative sugar mills in the state. This has produced a mere 2.72 lakh tonnes of sugar so far. The cane crushing season normally lasts for five months— mid-November to mid-April,but this time the crushing could start at a low scale only by the middle of December. According to sources,the crushing season has started late,but would end sooner than other years because of the shortage of crop in the state.

B S Duggal,Additional Director,Agriculture Department,Haryana,said the area under sugarcane production reduced by 20,000 hectrares in 2009-10. While the area under sugarcane production was 90,000 hectares in the year 2008-09,it came down 72,000 hectares last year. In 2007-08,the total area under sugarcane production in Haryana was 2.21 lakh hectares.

Farmers have found that wheat and rice crops are more lucrative than any other crop. This,despite the fact that the Haryana government pays the highest price in the country to sugarcane farmers. It has increased the State Advised Price (SAP) and added bonus too,said Duggal.

Production of sugarcane has come down drastically by about 65 per cent in the last three years in Haryana.

Sources said the Shhabad cooperative sugar mill could not start on time due to fault in the machines,which needed repair. The sugarcane crushing capacity of the Yamunanagar cooperative sugarmill is 1.30 lakh quintal per day,but at present it is not able to crush more than 30,000 lakh quintals due to shortage of sugarcane.