PUNE: The rainfall in the State has delayed the crushing of sugarcane for a month as the farmers are unable to harvest sugarcane before December 1 due to sludge in their fields.
Sugar Commissioner Shekhar Gaikwad said, “Normally, the crushing is done after Diwali but due to rains, it is unlikely that there will any harvesting before December 1.”
“The heavy downpour in the State has caused flooding in the sugarcane fields. In Maharashtra, sugarcane is cultivated on black cotton soil which has water holding properties. The semi-solid sludge in the sugarcane fields of Marathawada, Solapur, Kolhapur and Sangli is preventing the farmers from getting a good leg grip for carrying out harvesting,” Shekhar Gaikwad explained.
“There is no relief from rains as there is a forecast of more rainfall in the next two days. Therefore, the crushing process will be delayed by a month or two,” Gaikwad further said.
The application process for sugarcane mills to apply for crushing licence, initiated by the State government, has begun online, in which, 159 application have been received compared to 195 last year. Phase 1 of this process has been completed, while the second phase of issuing licence will begin from November 1.
“This year, we will issue 100 per cent licences online. However, the licences will be granted after the verification of these mills who have paid 100 per cent fair and remunerative price (FRP) to the farmers. The issuing of the licences will be done by the end of next week,” Gaikwad said.
He elaborated that the date of crushing is decided by a committee headed by the CM. “In a week, we will have a new government and once the issuing of licence is done, we will wait for the chief minister to decide the official date of crushing. However, as per the feedback we are receiving, it is unlikely that harvesting will be done now due to the rains,” added Gaikwad.
Reduction in produce
As reported earlier by Sakal Times, a reduction of 40 per cent in sugar production is expected for 2019-2020 due to drought and floods (at different times) in Maharashtra.
According to the Sugar Commissionerate, the estimated sugarcane production from Maharashtra is 632.25 lakh tonne, while last year, it was 952 lakh tonne.
The estimated production of sugar for 2019-2020 is 64 lakh tonnes as against the last year’s production of 107.21 lakh tonnes.
