Chandigarh, April 19:
Punjab Co-operation and Finance Minister Mr. Harpal Singh Cheema said that the state government has set a target to enhance sugarcane yield to 100 quintals per acre in coming two years.
In a statement issued here today, the Minister said that 1.72 crore quintals of sugarcane has 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 per cent more Sugar during 2021-22 than last year which has resulted in production of about 44764 quintals of surplus sugar. Mr Cheema said that this is expected to generate an 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 the increase of income upto Rs. 2.50 crore. Mr. Harpal Singh Cheema said that the Punjab Government under the leadership of Chief Minister Mr. Bhagwant Mann was committed for 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. He 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. Mr 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.” He further said that the government would provide improved sugarcane seeds to the sugarcane growers besides imparting knowledge on modern techniques in sugarcane cultivation. Mr Cheema directed the Cooperative Sugar Mills to provide about 30 lakh high yielding varieties of sugarcane seeds to the farmers in collaboration with Punjab Agriculture University, Ludhiana and Karnal Center of Indian Council of Agricultural Research.
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