Dharmapuri, Tamil Nadu: Sugarcane farmers associated with the Subramaniya Siva Cooperative Sugar mill (SSCS) have requested the State government to undertake cane crushing operations earlier as the district is facing a shortage of labour, reports The New Indian Express.
SSCS located in Harur is state-run mill and around 40,350 farmers are associated with it. The district is facing a labour shortage which has increased the labour cost for harvesting and planting cane. Due ro which, growers have urged the government to start crushing operations in November instead of December.
S K Annadurai, Treasurer of the All Sugarcane Cultivators Association said, “The Subramaniya Siva Cooperative Sugar mill starts crushing at the end of December and then there is a high demand for skilled labourers as most of them migrate to other places for work and the remaining workers charge heavily to harvest cane.”
“Farmers lose around 30% of their profit to labourers hence the government should start crushing cane earlier to reduce these losses,” he further added.
