Aska sugar factory aims for 83 per cent higher crushing

The Aska Cooperative Sugar Industries (ACSIL), the oldest sugar factory in Orissa in the cooperative sector, aims to crush around 1.5 lakh tonnes of sugarcane in the next crushing season, nearly 83 per cent higher than this year’s achievement.

The factory crushed 81,923 tonnes of sugarcane this year in 53 days as against the previous year’s 43,606 tonnes in 34 days, sources said.

The factory's sugarcane crushing operations began from December 23, 2010 and ended on February 18 this year.

The ACSIL produced around 66,700 quintals of sugar during the current crushing season, 28,605 quintals more than the previous year. In the previous year, it produced 37,895 quintals of sugar.

“We have taken several steps to raise sugarcane acreage in Ganjam district to achieve the target”, P C Padhy, sugarcane manager of ACSIL told Business Standard.

The ACSIL authorities want to increase the sugarcane acreage in the district from 3603 acres to 7500 acres this year. In the last year, sugarcane was cultivated on only 2355 acres.

The factory authorities have encouraged sugarcane cultivation among the farmers by providing them several inputs and incentives, Padhy claimed.

However, the Ganjam District Sugarcane Growers’ Association said that the farmers would be interested to cultivate the crop if the factory increases the sugarcane price.

The factory paid Rs 2000 per tonne to the sugarcane farmers, which is Rs 300 higher than the previous year. The association stated that the amount paid by the factory authorities was not remunerative.

“The sugarcane price offered by the factory authorities is not enough considering the input cost. The factory authorities should increase the price of sugarcane”, said Samir Pradhan, general secretary of the association.

He also urged the factory authorities to announce the sugarcane price at the beginning of the year, so that the farmers would be encouraged to cultivate the crop in more areas.