Record sugarcane crushing this year

This year,sugar factories in the state have crushed 801 lakh metric tonnes of sugarcane,producing 904 lakh quintals of sugar,the highest in the history of the sugar industry.

This year,sugar factories in the state have crushed 801 lakh metric tonnes of sugarcane,producing 904 lakh quintals of sugar,the highest in the history of the sugar industry in Maharashtra,said State Cooperation Minister Harshvardhan Patil here on Friday.

The ministry has given permission to blending of five per cent ethanol into diesel to three sugar factories in the state,Patil told a news conference at Yashada.

To solve the problem of scarcity of harvest labour,the Co-operation Ministry is working towards introducing mechanical sugarcane harvesters in the states. The government will provide 50 per cent subsidy to sugar factories,co-operative groups and individuals to buy these mechanical harvesters. As an experiment this year government has allocated Rs 100 crore to buy 200 sugarcane harvesting machines,he said.

The government has given a overdue guarantee of about 375.65 crore to 44 sugar factories for the year 2010-2011 and we are thinking about giving same kind of guarantee for the next season as well, he said. We have given permission for blending of ethanol into diesel to Ashok SSK,Shrirampur,Sahkar Mahrshi,Akluj and Ajinkya Tara,Satara, he said.

When asked what would happen to the sugar crop which is still in the field,he said,There is about 1.30 lakh tonnes sugarcane crop still to be crushed. We have given this responsibility to certain factories which are doing it. We will wait till these factories close down,if there is still uncrushed crop then we will think of providing compensations to affected farmers.

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