Minister seeks help for more cane yield

Chandigarh, January 31

Cooperation Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa has said efforts should be made to increase the sugarcane yield and convert the loss-making sugar mills into financially viable units so as to augment the income of farmers and generate more jobs in the agriculture sector.

He said this at the second International Conference and Exhibition on Sustainability, Innovation and Diversification in Sugar and Allied Industry at Vasantdada Sugar Institute (VSI) in Pune on Friday.

Former Union Minister and VSI president Sharad Pawar, Maharashtra PWD Minister Ashok Chavan, Cooperation Minister Balasaheb Patil, Excise Minister Dilip Walse Patil and VSI Director General Shivajirao Deshmukh were also present.

Randhawa requested Pawar and Deshmukh to help cooperative sugar mills in Punjab in increasing the per acre yield of sugarcane, which would add to the income of farmers and sugar factories.

A Punjab delegation, comprising Sugarfed chairman Amrik Singh Aliwal, Cooperative Societies Registrar Vikas Garg, Sugarfed MD Puneet Goyal and general managers of cooperative sugar mills, is attending the three-day conference that started on Friday. — TNS