Over 17 lakh tonnes of sugarcane still lying in farms across Maharashtra despite end of crushing season

Around 175 lakh tonnes of sugarcane is still lying uncut in farms across Maharashtra although the crushing season has ended but majority of this stock shall be crushed by the end of this month and over 30 sugar mills will remain functional till it is over a top official saidThe sugarcane crushing season in Maharashtra generally starts in OctoberNovember and continues till midAprilOut of the 10 districts in Maharashtra that have topped the list of excess sugarcane stock this year seven are from the Marathwada region the official saidAfter good rains last year the area under sugarcane cultivation in the state increased significantly Even after the sugarcane crushing season has got over the state still has around 175 lakh tonnes of sugarcane standing in farms waiting to be crushed Hence crushing in some parts of the state may continue till the first week of June he saidTalking to PTI Maharashtra sugar commissioner Shekhar Gaikwad said The quantum of sugarcane currently standing in the farms across the state is around 175 lakh tonnes Most of this crop will be crushed by May 31 In some parts of Ahmednagar and Jalna districts the crushing activity may continue till the first week of JuneSo far we have succeeded in bringing 129 harvesters from other states and all are working in Marathwada In Jalna alone 29 harvesters are working at present he saidThe state had recorded sugarcane plantation on 1142 lakh hectares in 202021 but this year 202122 the figure went up by 225 lakh hectares to 1367 lakh hectares The quantity of sugarcane crushed last year was 101331 lakh tonnes while this year till May 16 130062 lakh tonnes of sugarcane was crushed an increase of 28731 lakh tonnes another official said Over 30 sugar mills in the state may continue their operations till May end he saidBy May 15 out of the total 199 sugar mills in state 126 mills have stopped their operations for the season This figure may go up to 163 by May 25 The remaining 36 sugar mills may continue to work till the stock of sugarcane ends the official saidThe highest quantity of uncut sugarcane till May 16 is in Beed at 4 lakh tonnes followed by Jalna at 390 lakh tonnes Ahmednagar 3 lakh tonnes Latur 242 lakh tonnes Osmanabad 238 lakh tonnes Satara 1 lakh tonne Nanded 63000 tonnes Nandurbar and Aurangabad 50000 tonnes each and Parbhani 30000 tonnes each the official said adding that planning for the 202223 sugarcane crushing shall start a little earlyWe are expecting the same area of sugarcane cultivation next year But the plan is to commence the sugar mills 15 days earlier by October 1 than usual with an additional force and crushing capacities of 67 more mills The state has a capacity to crush 8 lakh tonnes of sugarcane per day now It may go up by 25 thousand per day next year sugar commissioner Gaikwad said The number of factories working for distillery production will reach to 5060 in the next season As a result the ethanol diversion will also increase he addedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever