LUCKNOW: Sugarcane cultivation in Uttar Pradesh touched a new high with the average cane production reaching 815 quintal per hectare in 2020-21. In the last fiscal, the average cane production was to the tune of 811 quintal per hectare.
Shamli district in west UP region has topped the chart by producing over 1,004 quintal per hectare of sugarcane followed by Muzaffarnagar which recorded 923.20 quintal per hectare. In fact, of the top 10 districts, nine are from the agriculturally rich west UP. The state has 45 cane producing zones.
Additional chief secretary (cane development) Sanjay Bhoosreddy said that the higher cane production was a result of crop cutting practice which was intensely used in the 2020-21 cane cultivation season. He maintained that it was because of the timely payment of cane price and associating farmers with the new cropping techniques which have led to an increase in the sugar cane production.
The high cane production happens to be directly linked to cane price payment which is scheduled to be done by the mills, essentially in the private sector, to the farmers. The farmer groups, as a matter of fact, are up in arms claiming that around Rs 12,000 crore of cane payment is due for the 2020-21 season.
Cane department officials, however, maintained that the department was committed to get the payment of cane prices done on a timely basis. The state government has been highlighting how it made a payment of over 1.4 lakh crore to the cane growers in the last four years.
