Yamunanagar, Haryana: Saraswati Sugar Mills (SSM) in Yamunanagar has provided substantial relief to approximately 22,000 sugarcane farmers by announcing the commencement of sugarcane crushing operations for the 2023-24 season on October 31, reported Tribune India.
Normally, sugar mills starts its crushing operation around November 20.
The decision to begin operations on October 31 holds special significance as it marks a return to this date after a gap of 28 years. The last time SSM started its crushing operation on October 31 was in 1995, with last year’s operations commencing on November 8.
This development has been greeted with enthusiasm by local farmers, as it allows them to harvest their sugarcane crop and subsequently sow their wheat crop on time, a farmer from Marwa village, expressed his appreciation for the decision.
Notably, the command area of SSM encompasses the entire region of Yamunanagar district, along with parts of Ambala and Kurukshetra districts. Here, most of the 22,000 sugarcane producers typically cultivate wheat across 25,000 to 30,000 acres annually after the sugarcane harvest.
DP Singh, the senior vice-president of SSM, stated that this year, the mill’s management has set a target of crushing 175 lakh quintals of sugarcane, compared to the actual crushing of 166 lakh quintals in the previous year.
DP Singh assured that the sugar mill is committed to purchasing the entire available sugarcane yield from the assigned farmers without causing any inconvenience to them. He also appealed to the farmers not to sell their sugarcane crops at lower rates to jaggery units.
