UP sugar mills asked to enter 'web world'

The Uttar Pradesh government has asked the sugar mills in the state to develop their websites for better information flow to their stakeholders, specially farmers.

There are about 130 sugar mills in the state operating in the private, government and cooperatives sectors.

So far, 113 sugar mills have developed their websites and collected mobile phone details of almost 75 per cent cane farmers. There are about four million cane farmers in Uttar Pradesh.

“These farmers are being given information regarding the slip, weighing and payment pertaining to cane supply to the mills through short messaging system (SMS),” UP cane development and sugar industry Principal Secretary Sanjay Agarwal said here.

Besides, the government has asked cane department officials to encourage farmers towards sugarcane farming in the next crushing season and also intercropping to increase their income and retain soil fertility.

During 2010-11, the state cane acreage and production have been estimated at 2.10 million hectares and 124 million tonnes respectively.

Uttar Pradesh sugar production target has been pegged at 6.1 million tonnes this year. Last year, the state had produced 5.2 million tonnes of sugar. The annual UP sugar consumption stands at 5 million tonnes.

The state is targeting intercropping over an area of 200,000 hectares in next season. The cane farmers adopting intercropping would be given incentives by the agriculture department through cane societies.

Meanwhile, the government has warned cane procurement centres engaged in underweighing and fleecing farmers. The officials have been directed to identify such centres and take action against them.

Till December, about 425 cases of underweighing had been detected and 250 notices served on them.