Co-op mills produce 3.71 lakh quintals of sugar in Haryana

The Haryana State Cooperative Sugar Mills produced 3,71,000 quintals of sugar by crushing 54,89,000 quintals of sugarcane up to December 28 during the current crushing season, against only 1,94,000 quintals of sugar from 27,24,000 quintals of sugarcane during the corresponding period last year.

A spokesman of the Cooperative Sugar Mills Federation said the Shahabad Sugar Mill recorded the highest crushing of 11,43,000 lakh quintals of sugarcane followed by Gohana Sugar Mill’s 6,19,000 tonnes; Panipat’s 6,01,000 quintals; Karnal’s 5,92,000 quintals; Sonipat’s 5,56,000 quintals; Meham and Kaithal’s 5,01,000 quintals each; Jind’s 4,56,000 quintals; Rohtak’s 3,46,000 quintals; and the Palwal Cooperative Sugar Mill’s 1,74,000 quintals.

The spokesman said, various schemes had been implemented for stepping up the sugarcane production, boosting farm mechanisation and setting up co-generation power plants in the cooperative sugar mills. In the Cooperative Sugar Mill at Shahbad and Rohtak, 24-Mw and 16-Mw power production plants respectively, have been setup and these have already started generating electricity.

Similarly, a proposal for setting up a 15-Mw plant in Panipat Sugar Mill has been sent to the state government for its approval. A 16-Mw power plant has been set up in the Cooperative Sugar Mill at Bhali Anandpur in Rohtak, at the cost of Rs 180 crore. The co-generation scheme would also be implemented in the Cooperative Sugar Mills at Karnal, Pawal and Panipat.

The spokesman said Rs 41.67-crore intensive sugarcane production scheme had been launched in 2010-11 for the cooperative sugar mills. Under this scheme, Rs 13.25 crore would be spent by the mills and Rs 18.34 crore would be provided to the farmers in the shape of interest-free loans.

Besides, four biological control laboratories have been setup at the cooperative sugar mills at Sonipat, Jind and Meham. A tissue-culture laboratory is also being setup at the cost of Rs 1.24 crore in the cooperative sugar mills, Karnal, to develop latest quality seeds. It will be renovated with financial assistance of Rs 54.5 lakh received from the Central Government under the National Agriculture Development Scheme.