CHANDIGARH: The Haryana government has decided to increase the state advised price (SAP) of sugarcane to Rs 362 per quintal, an increase by Rs 12 per quintal. According to the state government, this increased rate of sugarcane is not only more than Punjab, but has become the highest price in the entire country.
This was shared by Haryana agriculture and farmers’ welfare minister JP Dalal while interacting with the media persons after a meeting of Sugarcane Control Board. Cooperation minister Banwari Lal was also present during the meeting. The agriculture minister said the price of sugarcane had been increased after the approval of the chief minister to protect the interests of sugarcane farmers in the state.
The situation of sugarcane farmers, mills, sugar prices and other matters were discussed in the meeting. Dalal said that as per the decision taken by the state government, Rs 362 per quintal would be provided for early maturing varieties of sugarcane while Rs 355 per quintal for late maturing varieties of sugarcane that was Rs 340 per quintal earlier.
He said that due to poor quality of sugarcane last year, the recovery of all private and cooperative sugar mills had been depreciated by 0.34. This time the recovery has decreased from 10.58 to 10.24. He said it had been observed that the variety of sugarcane like 0238 being sown these days is having diseases. Therefore, agricultural scientists have developed 15023 new variety of sugarcane after discussing with the scientists of the Union and Haryana Agricultural University.
Similarly, in view of the efforts being made by the scientists, Dalal said the agriculture department would soon provide land to the scientists to produce more and more new varieties of sugarcane seeds so that the new variety of seeds could be made available to the farmers at the earliest.
He added that all sugar mills had been directed to operate in the first week of November so that farmers could get their crops crushed on time. The minister said farmers would get more profit by running the sugar mill early and they would be able to sow their next crop.
