Solapur: Despite the drought, which impacted the sugarcane production, a total of 42 sugar mills including 30 from Solapur district and 12 mills from Osmanabad district in Maharashtra have applied for same.
Farmers have uprooted sugarcane in the severely drought-affected regions of the state to feed their animals as other green fodders were not available. Due to which it was expected that unavailability of sugarcane would hamper sugar mills.
Mahesh Deshmukh, president of Lokmangal Sugar, said, “We are doubtful about the availability of sugarcane for crushing. The cane cultivation has been reduced due to drought, and available cane is used as fodder in cattle camps.”
In sugar season 2018-2019, 31 sugar mills from Solapur region and 13 sugar mills participated in crushing operations.
Sugar mills in the state for season 2019-20 may face difficulty in getting a crushing license. To ensure the early payment for sugarcane farmers, Maharashtra government has decided that sugar mills would be issued crushing licences only if they agree to pay fair and remunerative price (FRP) dues to cane growers within 14 days.
A total of 195 sugar mills participated in sugar season 2018-2019. According to the Sugar Commissionerate report, the factories have crushed 951.79 lakh tonnes of sugarcane to produce 107.19 lakh tonnes of sugar at a recovery rate of 11.26 per cent.
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