Ponda: The cane farmers from Goa are annoyed over the slow pace of cane harvesting which is sent to the neighbouring Karnataka for crushing. The farmers have decided to launch an agitation on January 7 demanding government to speed up cane harvesting.
The state government cancelled cane crushing in the state’s lone mill Sanjivani sugar mill over the huge cost of repair of the mill to take up crushing. The sugarcane farmers cane were sent to mills in Karnataka for crushing.
However, the government has taken the responsibility of their crop and even to provide them Farmers gang for harvesting their sugarcane production. Cane growers allege it has been one month now and when crushing season may likely to end soon, only 7,000 tonnes of sugarcane harvested and sent to Karnataka mill while still around 25,000 tonnes of sugarcane is yet to be harvested.
The farmers will stage a demonstration on January 7 demanding a written assurance from the government about harvesting and crushing all their cane and pay them their dues.
The sugarcane farmers have warned the government not to send their sugarcane to Karnataka next year. They demand that the Sanjivani sugar mill should be made operational next year.
The mill is facing financial trouble due to a lack of adequate supply of cane. The mill has registered a loss of Rs 101.22 crore due to unavailability of sugarcane and various reason. The government made sure that sugarcane produced by farmers will be bought at the market price. State chief minister Pramod Sawant had assured farmers that those who produce sugarcane this season would not incur any loss.
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