Sugarcane as an industry in Punjab has been steadily declining and sugar mills are facing severe financial crunch and are not in a position to pay sugarcane price to cane growers.
There are several cane growers who have not received their payment of their produce from last season which ended in April this year, from cooperative sugar mills. According to an official of Sugarfed?an apex body which is federating 15 cooperative sugar mills in Punjab? around payment of Rs 52 crore is still pending with them. Sugarfed has asked the state government to release the amount soon.
Punjab farmers are shying away from sugarcane cultivation in the state as it brings less remuneration than wheat and paddy. Initial estimates of the department of agriculture of the state has revealed that this season which is beginning from October, only 1.02 lakh hectares would be covered under sugarcane cultivation as compared to 1.40 lakh hectares in the last season. According to official information, the sugarcane acreage in the state, which stood at 2.35 lakh hectare during 1996-97, has shrunk by nearly 40% to 1.50 lakh hectare during 1997-98.
Speaking with FE, Mangal Singh Sandhu, cane commissioner Punjab said, ?Statutory minimum price (SMP) for sugarcane has been fixed at Rs 81.18 per quintal for a basic recovery of 9% subject to a premium of Rs 0.90 for every 0.1 percentage point increase in the recovery above that level for sugar season 2008-09. State advised price (SAP) for the crop is prevailing at Rs 132 per quintal. Farmers are not finding sugarcane cultivation profitable and prefer to grow wheat and paddy as it brings higher MSP?.
?However to promote this crop among the farmers, we are thinking of introducing water saving trench technology this season. This technology will help increasing the yield around 100-150 quintals per acre. Moreover it will help in saving 30-40% water. Apart from this Punjab Agriculture University has asked farmers to sow recommended varieties only. We are also exhorting cane growers to adopt intercropping too as they can grow crops like dal, moong, mentha. Besides mechanized harvesting will be introduced this season?, Sandhu added.
There are 23 sugar mills in the state out of which seven are lying closed from last few years. Sixteen sugar mills are running out of which nine are being run by the state government and seven are private. The cost of production of sugar is very high in Punjab, which is the main cause of the financial crunch. Because of this, the units engaged in sugar production are making huge losses.
Commenting on this issue, agriculture minister of Punjab Sucha Singh Langah said, ?Currently nine cooperative mills are running while six are lying closed. There is proposal for up gradation of nine running mills for co-producing electricity too. There is proposal to increase the crushing capacity from 15,766 TCD to 42,500 TCD. The total expenditure is estimated at Rs 865 crore and the matter has gone for approval in the Cabinet. Apart from these the government is mulling over to give unutilised sugar mills on lease?.