Sugar Mill Fails to Meet Crushing Target Due to Sugarcane Shortage in Mahottari

Mahottari. During the current fiscal year 2082/83, the Everest Sugar Industry located in Ramnagar, Gaushala Municipality-1, Mahottari, failed to achieve its sugarcane crushing target due to a shortage of sugarcane. The industry stated that only 2,853,178 quintals were crushed over 89 days of crushing this season.

This is 247,822 quintals less than the target set by the industry. The industry had set a target to crush 3.1 million quintals of sugarcane this season. "We had set a target to crush 3.1 million quintals of sugarcane, but we could not achieve this target due to the lack of sufficient sugarcane," said Surendra Shukla, the General Manager of the industry, adding, "Due to the shortage of sugarcane, we repeatedly had to stop and start crushing." The industry began crushing on Poush 7 and operated until last Thursday.

Although the industry has simplified the sugarcane payment process over the last three to four years, sugarcane cultivation has not increased. Sugarcane farming, which was over 15,000 bighas a decade ago, has shrunk to 5,000 to 6,000 bighas four years ago. Farmers who had stopped farming in previous years due to cumbersome payment processes have gradually started increasing cultivation as the process has been simplified over the last three years.

Currently, sugarcane is cultivated on about 9,000 bighas, informed Nareshsingh Kushwaha, Chairman of the Sugarcane Producers' Association, Mahottari. "The number of farmers cultivating has slightly increased after the industry simplified the payment system, but farmers are facing problems with price determination and subsidies," he said, adding, "The lack of resolution to this problem is preventing enthusiasm among farmers."

Farmers' representative organizations have been demanding that the price of sugarcane be determined by Kartik Magsar (late October/early November) every year, with the participation of the industry, the government, and themselves, and that subsidies be increased. Kushwaha complained that the government unilaterally determines the price without consulting farmer representatives. He added that this price determination happens after the crop is ready, putting farmers in a weak position.

Kushwaha informed that this situation, where cultivation cannot increase, is detrimental to both farmers and the industry. "Although farmers demand Rs 750 per quintal for sugarcane, the government has set the price at Rs 620 for sugarcane and Rs 70 as a subsidy, totaling Rs 690. This is low compared to the rising cost of cultivation and the general price hike," he said.

The sugar industry stated that it has been providing payment for sugarcane within two weeks of weighing. The industry's General Manager, Shukla, stated that only the payment for sugarcane weighed from the last week (Falgun 27 to Chaitra 5) is pending. The industry has assured that the payment will be completed within a few days.

So far, Rs 1.62 billion has been paid into the bank accounts of farmers for 2.632 million quintals of sugarcane weighed up to Falgun 26, informed the industry's General Manager, Shukla. According to him, 1,174 farmers have received this payment amount.