Samastipur: Sugarcane harvesting in the Hasanpur Sugar Mill area will now be carried out through mechanised methods, a move expected to address labour shortages and reduce harvesting expenses for farmers, reports Live Hindustan.
On the initiative of the Hasanpur Sugar Mill, live demonstrations of sugarcane harvesting machines are being conducted in farmers’ fields. The machine is capable of cutting, stripping and bundling sugarcane at the same time. Officials said around 80 quintals of sugarcane can be harvested, cleaned and bundled within three hours, after which three workers load it onto a trailer.
Shambhu Prasad Rai, an official of Pragmatics organisation, said demonstrations were held in the fields of several farmers, including Ganpati Jha of Patsa, Virendra Rai, and Neeraj Kumar of Devdha. Around 15 trailer loads of sugarcane were harvested using the machine during these demonstrations.
Officials said the machine completes cutting, cleaning and bundling within three hours, with minimal labour required for loading. Demonstrations are being carried out across the area to familiarise farmers with the technology. Mechanisation from planting to harvesting is expected to lower cultivation costs and make sugarcane farming easier for growers.
Ramasankar Prasad, Deputy General Manager (Cane) of the sugar mill, said the mill is taking concrete steps to support sugarcane farmers by promoting methods that reduce costs and increase returns.
Pragmatics Managing Director Dushyant Badal said another harvester machine will be brought in within a week. He added that the new machine will also load sugarcane directly onto trailers after harvesting. At present, farmers spend between ₹75 and ₹100 per quintal on manual harvesting, but with the machine, the cost is expected to come down to around ₹30 to ₹40 per quintal.
