Sugarcane crushing gains pace in Haryana

This year’s sugarcane crushing in Haryana has picked on a speedier note compared to 2011. As per state agriculture officials, sugar mills have till January 31 crushed 281.99 lakh quintal of sugarcane in the state — with 23.09 lakh quintal production of sugar. Compared to year-ago period, the sugarcane crushed was 226 lakh quintals, with a sugar recovery of 18.24 lakh quintal. Haryana has 14 sugar mills (10 co-operative sugar mills, 3 private sugar mill and 1 managed by Hafed).

Higher sugarcane crushing this year is a result of an increase in area under sugarcane in the state. The area for the crop in 2011 stood over 2 lakh hectare, compared to 1.45 lakh hectare the previous year. The acreage this time is 38 per cent more than last year. The target set for sugarcane crushing this year (2011-12) is 430 lakh quintal, while the sugar production is estimated to be around 45-50 lakh quintal.

 

Sarswati Sugar Mill, which is one of the largest private sugar mills in the state, is eyeing crushing of 140 lakh quintal sugarcane and a production of 14.28 lakh quintal sugar. Krishna Mohan, financial commissioner and principal secretary (cooperation), maintained that ten co-operative sugar mills in Haryana, having an installed capacity of 2,37,500 quintals per day, have set a target of crushing 385 lakh quintal. The area increasing under sugarcane in Haryana are “hearty signs” for the government, which has taking steps to ensure an increase in the area under sugarcane cultivation, he added.

The sugarcane area in Haryana declined from 1.40 lakh hectares in 2007-08 to 72,000 hectares in 2009-10 — a 38 per cent fall.

Since then, the state government has taken a series of initiatives to incentivise the farmers for growing sugarcane in the state. The government has enhanced the sugarcane price to Rs 231, Rs 226 and Rs 221 per quintal for early, medium and late maturing varieties of sugarcane respectively for the 2011-12 crushing season.

Also, autumn planting for sugarcane has been promoted. A subsidy at a rate of Rs 2000 per acre on sugarcane seed was provided to the sugarcane growers during the previous season.