Sugarcane farmers in Goa are unable to get good returns for their crops as the Sanjivani Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana; the lone sugar factory in the state has stopped operations.
The mill was set up by the first Chief Minister of Goa, Dayanand Bandodkar, at Dharbandora in South Goa in 1972. The factory suffered losses in the last decade and its operations were stopped three years ago stating that it was not viable to operate the mill.
The area under cane cultivation was around 789.48 ha in 2017-18 when 955 farmers produced 47,503.723 tonnes of cane. In 2018-19, 865 farmers produced 33,212.773 tonnes of cane from 798.64 ha of land.
After the government decided to shut the factory in 2020, around 784 farmers produced 26,282.61 tonnes of the cane on 664.17 ha of land. It was further dropped to 31,202.188 ha in 2020-21 with 535 farmers growing cane on 431.57 ha of land.
Rajendra Desai, the president of Goa Us Utpadan Sanghatana (Sugarcane Producers association) said that the farmers are not getting a good rate for their crops due to the closure of the sugar mill.
