Vellore mill pays cane cutting charges in advance

VELLORE: In a record of sorts, the Vellore Cooperative Sugar Mill has started paying cane-cutting charges to farmers in advance, according to chairmanM Anandan.

Conveying this to DT Next he said, “We are paying at the rate of Rs 700 per tonne for an average of 30 tonnes per acre to ensure that a farmer gets Rs 21,000 in his bank account immediately enabling him to hire either machinery or men to cut cane in his fields.”

The new initiative is also to ensure that those who have registered their cane with the mill do not divert the loads for jaggery crushing in case the latter offers better prices, officials said.

“With the mill having already registered 2.50 lakh acres for the ensuing crushing season we hope to easily achieve crushing 3 lakh tonnes as we expect diversion from other mills,” Anandan said.

“Efforts are on to start crushing by the second week of December,” he added.

Meanwhile, along with the Virinjipuram-based Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) recently held a workshop where the advantages of using drones for all agriculture-related work were spelled out by Kendra officials. “Presently it is very rare for cane farmers in the Vellore mill to use drones due to a lack of awareness.

The 75 farmer-participants were advised to use drones for spraying fertilizer, weedicide, pesticide, and cane booster which will be cheaper as drones will only require 10 litres to 16 litres of water per acre, thereby cutting the use of fertilizer and pesticide, will complete the work in an acre in 15 minutes with minimum involvement of manual labour,” Anandan added.

“Once interest picks up, the mill plans to tie up with drone companies to ensure that the maximum area is covered for the 2024 crushing season,” Cane Development Officer M Velayudham said.

Those present at the meeting included mill MD G Narmada and KVK director Dr Thirumurugan.