Focus on increasing sugarcane production: Shyam Singh Rana to farmers

Haryana Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister Shyam Singh Rana today said there was a need to focus on increasing sugarcane production and create awareness among farmers about using new technologies for sugarcane sowing. He directed officials concerned to ensure that cooperative sugar mills were equipped with modern machinery to enhance recovery and reduce losses.

Rana gave these directions while chairing the Sugarcane Control Board meeting held on Saturday. Co-operation Minister Dr Arvind Sharma also joined the meeting through video conferencing.

Rana said sugarcane seed varieties released by the Central Variety Release Committee for the north-western region would be recognised by the state government. There would be no need to seek separate approval from Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University for these varieties, he said, while adding that farmers should be informed about new sugarcane seed varieties so that productivity could increase and farmers earned higher profits. This, in turn, would lead to higher sugarcane and sugar production compared to the existing varieties.

The minister further informed that during the 2024–25 crushing season, various cooperative sugar mills in the state had purchased sugarcane worth Rs 1,278.50 crore for crushing, and the full payment was made to farmers.

Besides, the Naraingarh Sugar Mill in the private sector still had pending dues from the previous crushing season, which would be cleared by December 2025, the minister said. Rana further said sugarcane farmers should be encouraged to adopt modern machinery for sowing and harvesting to reduce their expenses and increase profits.

Pankaj Agarwal, Principal Secretary, Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Department, Rajnarayan Kaushik, Director, Agriculture, Shakti Singh, Managing Director, Haryana Cooperative Federation of Sugar Mills Ltd, and other senior officials of the department also attended the meeting.