Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu: Sugarcane farmers in the western have kept their fingers crossed after the Tiruppur district administration instructed them to register their crops with the near-defunct Amaravathi Cooperative Sugar Mill in Udumalpet, reported The Hindu.
Last week, the Tiruppur administration announced that cane farmers within the Mill’s Command Area—including Coimbatore, Tiruppur, and Dindigul districts—could register to supply their produce. However, the administration informed farmers that their produce would be redirected and processed at other mills, as was done last year.
Last year, the mill managed to crush only 50,000 tonnes of the 75,000 tonnes procured due to a machinery breakdown, resulting in 10,000 tonnes being diverted to other mills. For the current crushing season, all produce from the command area is slated to be sent to other mills.
Farmers had hoped the State government would advance the ₹160 crore proposal from last year aimed at modernizing the mill in two phases. The failure to act on this proposal has left many farmers disheartened.
Installed in 1955, the Mill’s machinery couldn’t be repaired last year due to a lack of spare parts, leading to the diversion of cane to other mills, according to media report
In response, a group of farmers staged a demonstration on Thursday in front of the Tiruppur Collectorate, demanding immediate funding for machinery renovation.
Government data shows that Tiruppur ranks tenth in the State for sugarcane cultivation with 3,484 hectares under cultivation, and a productivity rate of 117 tonnes per hectare.
M.M. Nagarajan, Secretary of the Tamil Nadu Karumbu Vivasayigal Sangam, representing cultivators at Amaravathi Cooperative Sugar Mill, emphasized the importance of modernizing the Mill, given the 11% sugar recovery rate of produce in the western region. Nagarajan also highlighted the potential for the Mill, with modern machinery, to serve as a model for substantial ethanol production in the future.
