Govt urged to protect cane growers

Indian farmers federation National Secretary RV Giri, state general secretary Varanavasi Rajendran and state deputy Secretary Karumbu Kalivaradhan submitted a petition to Samayamurthy, Secretary of Agriculture department at the Secretariat, Chennai, urging the government to take appropriate measures to alleviate the hardships faced by sugarcane farmers in Tamil Nadu.

He said more than 15 sugar mills have been closed down in TN. So,  the sugarcane areas belonging to the closed mills should be merged with the coop and government mills in their respective areas. In TN, the sugar content in the cane is less than 8%. Therefore, the MSP announced by the  Centre is not available to the farmers of TN.

So, new high breed sugarcane varieties having more sugar content should be introduced. Similarly, new machines from sowing to harvesting should be introduced to meet the farm workers shortage to help cane growers and cut production cost, they urged. They also submitted the petitions to the Director of Agriculture, Sugarcane Commissioner, and Deputy Chairman of Planning Committee.