Aska sugar mill faces closure

The Aska Cooperative Sugar Industries Limited (ACSIL), the oldest cooperative industry in the state located at Aska in Ganjam district is facing closure due to shortage of sugarcane.

Sugarcane farmers in the district are switching over to cultivation of other agricultural products like paddy and seasonal vegetables as they could not get proper remuneration for sugarcane.

With the dwindling sugarcane production in the cane growing area, the future of ACSIL appears to be bleak. Although Ganjam district has a potential for 22,000 hectares of sugarcane cultivation, the farmers in the district cultivate sugarcane in only 2,300 acres. In 2007-08, the area under sugarcane cultivation was 7,000 acres and it was reduced to 4,000 acres in 2008-09.

“If the area under sugarcane cultivation is reduced, we will face serious shortage of the raw material to run the sugar mill,” admitted a senior officer of the factory.

The sugarcane farmers in the district, however, said they are forced to switch over to cultivation of other crops like paddy and seasonal vegetables as they could not get much profit from sugarcane.

“We don not get much profit from sugarcane due to less remuneration given by the sugar mill,” said Samir Pradhan, secretary of the Ganjam District Sugarcane Growers Association.

He urged the factory authorities to increase the sugarcane price from Rs 1,200 per tonne to Rs 1,800 per tonne, offer transport subsidy to transport the sugarcane from the field to the factory and also provide irrigation facilities for the crop.

“The irony is that when the prices of sugar in the retail market has touched a high of Rs 28-30 per kg, the sugarcane growers in the district are not able to get remunerative price for their crop and they are forced to switch over to other profitable crops,” Pradhan said.