Punjab eyes 100 quintals sugarcane per acre in 2 years

Chandigarh: Punjab Co-operation and Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said that the state government has set a target to enhance sugarcane yield to 100 quintals per acre in the coming two years.

In a statement issued here on Tuesday, the Minister said that 1.72 crore quintals of sugarcane have been crushed by the Cooperative Sugar Mills of the state during the season 2021-22, which is about 20 lakh quintals more than the last crushing season.

He said that the Cooperative Sugar Mills have extracted 0.26 percent more Sugar during 2021-22 than last year which has resulted in the production of about 44764 quintals of surplus sugar. Cheema said that this is expected to generate additional revenue of Rs 16 crore.

The co-operation minister also said that the Cooperative Sugar Mills had sold 2,85,000 quintals of sucrose (sheera) at an average rate of Rs. 887 per quintal as against the previous year's average of Rs. 800 resulting in an increase of income upto Rs. 2.50 crore.

Harpal Singh Cheema said that the Punjab Government under the leadership of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann was committed to the welfare of the farmers adding that as per the directions of the Chief Minister, the Punjab Government had constituted a task force to chalk out a plan to increase the income of sugarcane growers by enhancing sugarcane yield.

The state Finance Minister said that this task force includes representatives from Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore and national level sugarcane experts besides Sugarfed, Punjab officials.

The Minister said that the task force has been mandated to come up with a plan to increase the sugarcane yield in three months. Cheema said that " the state government has fixed a target for the next two years to increase the sugarcane yield by at least 100 quintals per acre which would increase the income per acre by about Rs. 36,000."