Sugarcane crushing to begin today in North Karnataka districts
Minister Shivanand Patil announced that the sugarcane crushing season in North Karnataka will begin a week early, on Friday, in response to farmer and mill owner requests. This season, sugarcane is ready for harvesting on six lakh hectares, with eight mills participating. Farmers will receive ₹3,400 per quintal, up from ₹3,150 last year. Patil also mentioned extended MSP procurement for green gram and soybean, the rollout of a new textiles policy to address staff shortages, and the Nekar Samman Scheme, which provides incentives and free power to encourage youth in weaving.
Minister for Textiles, Sugarcane Development, Sugar and Agricultural Marketing Shivanand Patil has said that the government has issued an order directing sugar mills to start sugarcane crushing season a week in advance in North Karnataka. Addressing a press conference in Hubballi on Thursday, he said that the government had previously ordered that the sugarcane crushing season will start on November 15. But, now, following demand from farmers and request from sugar mill owners, it has been decided to start sugarcane crushing on Friday.
In South Karnataka, sugarcane crushing began three months ago, he said. The Minister said that sugarcane is ready for harvesting in six lakh hectares in the State and eight sugar mills will start crushing sugarcane. Now, a price of ₹3,400 per quintal of sugarcane has been announced, while it was ₹3,150 last year, he said. Elaborating on the reasons for an early start, he said that farmers aired their grievances saying that if sugarcane crushing is not started before November 12, yield will come to 25 tonnes-30 tonnes instead of 50 tonnes-60 tonnes per acre. He said that sugar mills in North Karnataka and in Maharashtra usually begin sugarcane crushing at the same time and although they requested the Maharashtra government to advance sugarcane crushing, it could not be changed because of the poll code of conduct being in force there.
Mr. Patil said that though procurement of green gram under the minimum support price (MSP) had already concluded, the government has extended it and increased procurement to 32,000 tonnes. This apart, procurement of soybean has also been extended, he added. The Minister said that for the first time, MSP has been announced for procurement of soybean, green gram, sunflower and copra and procured simultaneously. Due to the withdrawal of amendments to APMC Act, APMCs in the State have earned a profit of ₹200 crore, he said. He also said that the government is planning to implement the new textiles policy, which will solve various problems, including shortage of staff, in the Textiles Department. The Nekar Samman Scheme is being implemented to encourage youths to take up weaving as a profession. Apart providing incentives, free power is being supplied, he said.
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