Cane area reduces 15% in Haryana, sugar mills to face shortfall

The sugar mills of Haryana may face a shortfall in supply of sugarcane in the current crushing season as the area under sugarcane crop has reduced from 3,59,803 acres in 2023-24 to 3,04,309 acres (more than 15 per cent) in 2024-25.

There are a total of 14 sugar mills, including cooperative sugar mills situated in Panipat, Rohtak, Karnal, Sonepat, Shahabad, Jind, Palwal, Maham, Kaithal, Gohana and Assandh (HAFED mill) and private sugar mills in Naraingarh (Ambala district), Bhadshon (Karnal district) and Yamunanagar.

Several of them, including Saraswati Sugar Mills, Yamunanagar, and Cooperative Mill, Karnal, have commenced crushing operations.

The area under sugarcane in Haryana has reduced due to a number of factors including drastic low yield due to weather conditions, impact of floods in the area of Shahabad sugar mill, Naraingarh sugar mill and Yamunanagar sugar mills and non-availability of labour required for different requirements including harvesting in cane cultivation.

DP Singh, senior vice-president (cane) of Saraswati Sugar Mills, Yamunanagar, said that the farmers in this region comprising Punjab and Haryana were solely dependent on migratory labour particularly from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

He said that in addition to it, remuneration from other competitive crops like paddy, wheat and poplar was also encouraging the farmers to shift from sugarcane to these competitive crops.

“Moreover, there is a complete lack of mechanism in sugarcane. A complete mechanical machinery is available for cultivation of major crops like paddy and wheat in this region,” said DP Singh.

He added that the drastic reduction in cane area would result in lower production and subsequently affect total cane availability to the sugar mills forcing early closure.

“Due to it, seed availability for the next cane planting season may be a big challenge,” said DP Singh.

Farmer Anil Kaushik of Lal Chhappar Majri village said that the state government had already initiated certain major steps in the form of different incentives to increase the cane area in the state.

“The need of the hour is to tackle the problem of labour by providing mechanical machinery, particularly cane harvesters to overcome the labour problem,” said Kaushik.