Farmers in Barkur, Japti, Kalavara and Halady villages have started cultivating sugarcane in about 90 acres of land with the hope that this would encourage more farmers to join them and finally help revive the ailing Brahmavar Sugar Cooperative Factory in Udupi district.
The factory closed down due to mounting losses in 2004. Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy said here eight months ago that the government would revive the factory if the farmers in the district were ready to grow sugarcane in ample quantities.
Hence, the factory management transported high yielding variety of sugarcane nurseries and distributed them free among farmers between February and April.
Satyanarayana Udupa, general secretary of the district unit of the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, who is cultivating sugarcane in his field, told The Hindu that farmers living in villages where the Varahi canal passes by had started cultivating sugarcane saplings provided by the factory.
“At present, farmers are cultivating it in about 90 acres of land. We are in touch with other farmers and we hope to increase the area under sugarcane cultivation to about 2,000 acres next year and to about 6,000 acres in the third year. This would help provide enough sugarcane for the factory to crush,” he said.
The management of the factory had sent a detailed project report prepared by a private agency to the State government for the revival of the factory.
As per the project report, ₹ 40 crore was required for the revival of the factory. This included replacing obsolete machinery and repairing some of the old machinery. “Our goal is to opt for production of ethanol in the first stage as there is a lot of demand for it. We will think of sugar production in the next stage. We are pursuing the project report with the government,” said M. Jayasheela Shetty, chairman of the factory.
Farmers and also other stakeholders are hopeful of the factory’s revival. Meanwhile, the Sugar Ministry has asked the factory to increase its share in the revival funding.
“Hence, we are thinking of approaching some cooperative societies and some rich farmers,” Mr. Shetty said.
However, both the factory and farmers have prepared a contingency plan if the factory could not be revived.
“Then, we will send sugarcane produced to sugar factories in Haliyal, Hassan and Davangere,” he said.
