Andhra Pradesh - Kadapa   

Collector offers Rs. 2,000 per tonne of cane

KADAPA: In-Charge Collector M. Girijasankar on Tuesday offered farmers a fair and remunerative price of Rs. 2,000 per tonne of sugarcane, which is higher than Rs. 1,298.40 per tonne fixed by the Central Government.

Addressing sugarcane farmers on Kadapa Cooperative Sugars Limited (KCSL) premises at Dowlathapuram in Chennur mandal, Mr. Girijasankar exhorted farmers to raise sugarcane in at least 5,000 acres to facilitate full-scale crushing next year.

As against the normal cropping area of 3,400 acres, sugarcane is cultivated by 228 farmers in 480 acres in 13 mandals in the district this season, he said.

Agreeing with the farmers’ contention that they were bogged down by steep rise in input costs, wages and non-availability of labourers, he assured to put forth their proposals to deploy labourers for sugarcane crop harvest under Andhra Pradesh Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

Mr. Girijashankar assured to constitute a cell with bankers and farmers to ensure timely disbursal of loans. Urging them to adopt improved methods of cultivation and raise high-yielding sugarcane varieties, he told farmers to take to drip irrigation.

The Rajasekhara Reddy government granted Rs. 20 crore and APCOB sanctioned loan of Rs. 3.20 crore last year as ryots are shareholders in the factory, he said.

Managing director of the factory Shamsher Ahmed said crushing of about 15,000 tonnes is expected and it is economically unviable.

Proposals are sent to the Government requisitioning sanction of Rs. 3.80 crore to the factory.

Additional Cane Commissioner of Chittoor, Rajendra Prasad, said sugarcane crop area fell steeply and crushing of 53 lakh metric tonnes is expected this year as against 59 lakh tonnes last year.

The purchase tax of Rs. 60 a tonne will be passed on to the farmers, he assured.

Principal scientist of Agricultural Research Station at Utukur M. Subba Rao said drip irrigation will increase cane yield by 29 per cent and save water by 50 per cent.

Deputy Director of Agriculture G. Seshaiah said farmers achieved a yield of 25 to 30 tonnes per acre in Kadapa district, as against 40 to 80 tonnes in neighbouring Chittoor.

Founder-chairman of the factory R. Ramamurthy Reddy said cane yield per acre could be increased by 15 acres by using drip irrigation.

District Marketing Cooperative Society chairman P. Pratap Reddy, Congress leaders N. Raghava Reddy and P. Chandrasekhar Reddy, TDP leaders G. Lakshmi Reddy and Siva Reddy and Bharatiya Kisan Sangh leader Chandrasekhar Reddy also spoke.

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