Yamunanagar: Jaggery-making units procure cane from farmers at low price

Tribune News Service

Shiv Kumar Sharma

Yamunanagar, January 25

Taking advantage of the halting of crushing operation at Saraswati Sugar Mill (SSM), operators of jaggery-making units (popularly known as ‘kolhus’) have reduced the price of sugarcane here, affecting a section of farmers.

As per available information, jaggery-making units bought sugarcane from farmers at Rs 300 to Rs 305 per quintal today.

Earlier, jaggery-making units had procured sugarcane at Rs 330 per quintal on January 19, 2023, a day ahead of the start of the farmers’ indefinite strike on January 20 for a hike in state advisory price of sugarcane to Rs 450 per quintal from the existing Rs 362 per quintal.

Meanwhile, the indefinite strike of farmers entered the sixth day on Wednesday.

“Saraswati Sugar Mill has been non-functional for some days due to strike of the sugarcane producers. The rates of sugarcane have come down as farmers, who have an agreement with the mill for supplying sugarcane, have started selling cane to jaggery-making units due to halting of crushing operation at the mill,” said Anil Kumar, a farmer of Marwa village.

He, however, said before stopping of the sugar mill’s operation most farmers, who did not have a sugarcane supply agreement with the mill, sold cane to jaggery-making units.

According to information, the agreement of supplying sugarcane to sugar mills does not suit most small farmers as they get inadequate indents after long intervals. In this process, it takes long time for them to harvest even a single acre crop of sugarcane.

The area under the sugarcane crop is 97,000 acres that falls in the jurisdiction of the SSM in the current crushing season. There is a possibility that the sugarcane yield from this area could go up to 2.5 crore quintals.

The SSM has fixed a target to crush 175 lakh quintals of sugarcane in the present crushing season. The remaining 75 lakh quintals of sugarcane will be sold to jaggery-making units and used as seed to sow another cane crop.

Surajbhan, Assistant Cane Development Officer, Yamunanagar, said, “At present, the Yamunanagar district has 164 jaggery-making units. Earlier, there were 184 jaggery-making units in the district out of which licences of 20 units have been cancelled this year as their operators did not fulfil norms laid by the government.”

2.5 crore quintals of cane yield expected

• There are 164 jaggery-making units in district
• Jaggery-making units bought sugarcane from farmers at Rs 300 to Rs 305 per quintal on Wednesday
• These units procured sugarcane for Rs 330 per quintal on January 19, 2023, a day ahead of farmers indefinite strike on January 20 for the cane price hike
• Possibility of 2.5 crore quintals yield of sugarcane grown on 97,000 acres falling under the Saraswati Sugar Mill jurisdiction

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