(The Economic Times): A better availability of labour due to wage hike and an increased use of harvesting machines have helped Maharashtra sugar mills crush more cane in less time this year.
The mills have crushed about 10% more cane till last week as compared to the previous year. Barring a few mills in Pune region, the crushing season is expected to get over in the state by April-end. Despite a late start due to farmer protests over cane price, cane crushing is going on unhindered.
Till last week, Maharashtra mills had crushed 640 lakh tonne cane and produced 734 lakh quintal sugar with a recovery of 11.46% as compared to crushing of 585 lakh tonne cane and sugar production of 651 lakh quintal with a recovery of 11.12% during the same period of last year.
The quantity of cane crushed is higher by 9.40% while the quantity of sugar produced is higher by 12.7%.
Sugar production is higher because sugar recovery this year is higher by 0.32% as compared to the last year.
An increment of 70% in wages ensured that the labour did not migrate to neighbouring states. "We have better labour availability this year," said the managing director of a Baramati-based sugar co-operative.
The increase in the use of harvesters has also eased some pressure. "As compared to 28 harvesters we had last year, 130 harvesters are operating this year," said an official from the state sugar commissionerate. Sugar mills get a 25% subsidy for the harvesters.
Although there is an improvement in recovery, the per-acre cane yield of the sugar cane crop has dropped. As a result, the state sugar commissionerate has revised downward its estimate of sugar production to 88 lakh tonnes to 89 lakh tonnes.
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