Vazhuvur ryot destroys 12 acres of cane crop due to low yield
The Cheyyar sugar mill stopped crushing on May 7, a week before ending its crushing season due to problems with the mill’s boilers.
Farmer Chakrapani destroying his standing cane crop near Cheyyar in Tiruvannamalai district
TIRUVANNAMALAI: A cane farmer fearing that standing cane on 12 acres of land owned by him would not fetch good returns destroyed the crop by running a tractor over them on Sunday.
Chakrapani, a farmer of Vazhuvur near Cheyyar in Tiruvannamalai district, had raised cane on 12 acres.
“Though the normal anticipated yield was between 30 to 40 tonnes per acre, he was able to get only around 12 tonnes due to improper maintenance of his farm,” Cheyyar sugar mill sources said.
However, mill officials were taken aback by media reports that the incident occurred due to “the mill being closed for repairs.”
Officials of the sugar mill in Cheyyat revealed that they had visited Chakrapani’s farm and had informed him that the mill would willingly take his cane in the first lot when the mill started crushing in the first week of December.
“But Chakrapani destroyed his crop without informing mill officials,” sources said.
Top mill officials said, “The Cheyyar sugar mill stopped crushing on May 7, a week before ending its crushing season due to problems with the mill’s boilers. We then sought permission to divert the remaining 17,000 tonnes of cane to cooperative sugar mills at Kallakurichi and Villupuram.”
Explaining further, mill officials said “Some areas are waterlogged due to persistent rain and we plan to take this cane at the earliest when the mill resumes operations. The mill has presently registered 2.50 lakh tonnes for the next crushing season.”
However, one issue that surfaced when cane officials visited individual farms to canvas for more cane production was that many farmers were turning to paddy due to better prices while government-officered cane price was not enough to meet all needs.
