Govt, farmers differ on crop size, acreage

The projections of the 2007-08 sugarcane hectarage and crop size has generated much heat between the Federation of Sugarcane Growers' Associations of Andhra Pradesh (FSGAAP) and officials of the state agriculture department.

Federation Secretary N S Venkateswara Sharma said the sugarcane crop area would come down to 1.6 lakh hectares in 2007-08 from 2.30 lakh hectares (2006-07) and predicted that the hectarage would further dip to 1.2 lakh hectares in 2008-09 due to adverse conditions being faced by farmers.

Contradicting his views, officials claimed that farmers have already planted sugarcane in 2.27 lakh hectares as against the targeted crop area of 2.46 lakh hectares. The farmers' body said the state's production of sugarcane would go down to 90 lakh tonnes in 2007-08 and further dip to 60-70 lakh tonnes in 2008-09.