The ensuing sugarcane crushing season for the seven mills in Telangana promises to be better than the last year in terms of production, but the damage caused to the crop along the Manjira river near Singur dam by wild boars has been a sore point with farmers.
An inspection of the affected crop by a joint team comprising forest, agriculture and revenue officials has revealed that the animals destroyed about 200 acres in patches of the crop grown by farmers who were contracted to supply the cane to a private mill in Sangareddy.
A senior official of the mill told The Hindu that wild boars swarmed the crop in large groups after 7.30 p.m. The solar fencing to the crop did not work.
Otherwise, the seven private sugar mills at Kallur and Rajeswarapuram in Khammam district, Kothakota in Wanaparthy district, Zaheerabad, Sangareddy, Magi and Kamareddy were poised to have a better season when the crushing would start after November 15. Against 11 lakh tonnes of cane crushed by the units last year, it was expected that the sugarcane production by the time the factories were lighted up would be 22 lakh tonnes. Last year, drought had resulted in less than 50% production on 29,000 hectares of cropped area.
The Director of Sugar and Cane Commissioner, Bhadru Malloth, said 2.2 lakh tonnes of sugar was expected in the coming season. Yet, Telangana would be way behind the demand of the State, which was 7.5 lakh tonnes, based on the per capita consumption as per the 2011 Census. The balance was met by purchases from the international market.
Sugar production in Telangana has gradually decreased from 2005 when the cropped area of cane was the maximum and the sugar mills operated to 100% capacity. Now, the crushing capacity of the mills was only 68% as farmers shifted to other crops since the price of sugar was highly fluctuating and also due to non-availability of labour and lack of irrigation facility.
The adverse conditions led to the closure of three units of Nizam Deccan Sugars Limited, a joint venture company, at Metpally, Bodhan and Mumbajipally and also the Nizam Cooperative Sugar earlier. Two of the seven existing private mills belonging to a prominent Congress leader also turned sick and went to the Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR).