Sugarcane growers of the district have demanded that the State government direct the management of Mysore Paper Mills (MPM), a public sector unit in Bhadravati, to purchase their produce.
The production at MPM that has a paper factory and a sugar generation unit came to a halt in December 2014. The State government had recently denied providing fresh funds to resume production at the firm.
The sugarcane growers in Shivamogga and Bhadravati taluks, with whom MPM used to enter into a buyback agreement every year to purchase sugarcane, had expressed their ire against the decision taken by the government. In the wake of these developments, the senior officials of the office of Commissioner of Cane Development and Director of Sugar had convened a meeting with the representatives of Shivamogga district unit of Karnataka Kabbu Belegarara Sangha, an association of sugarcane growers in Bengaluru, on July 21.
Eranna, president of the district unit of the sangha, told The Hindu that the officials said the State government would issue permits to sugarcane growers to sell their produce to sugar factories in neighbouring districts. The farmers registered their opposition to the proposal in the meeting.
The farmers demanded that the government resume production at MPM at the earliest and direct the management to purchase the sugarcane. In case of delay, the government should purchase the sugarcane through MPM and sell it to other sugar factories. The farmers also demanded issuance of bills towards purchase of sugarcane in the name of MPM, Mr. Eranna said.
He said that sugarcane was cultivated in 3,700 acres in the district, of which a major chunk was under the ratooning cultivation method. The total production of sugarcane was estimated at 1.6 lakh tonne. All these years, MPM purchased sugarcane from farmers for its sugar generation unit through buyback agreement. The halting of production at MPM had created confusion among farmers. The farmers were also hesitant of entering into an agreement with private sugar factories at this juncture, Mr. Eranna said.
