Sugarcane yield target 100 quintals per acre in 2 yrs: Harpal Cheema

Co-operation and finance minister Harpal Cheema on Tuesday said the Punjab government has set a target to enhance sugarcane yield to 100 quintals per acre in the coming two years.

Co-operation and finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Tuesday said the state government has set a target to enhance sugarcane yield to 100 quintals per acre in the coming two years.

Harpal Cheema said the Punjab government had constituted a task force to chalk out a plan to increase the income of sugarcane growers by enhancing sugarcane yield. (HT Fie Photo)

In a statement here, Cheema said that a total of 1.72 crore quintals of sugarcane has been crushed by the cooperative sugar mills of the state during the 2021-22 season, which is about 20 lakh quintals more than the last crushing season. The mills have extracted 0.26 per cent more sugar during 2021-22 than last year which has resulted in the production of about 44,764 quintals of surplus sugar, he added, pegging the additional revenue at ₹16 crore.

He said the state government had constituted a task force to chalk out a plan to increase the income of sugarcane growers by enhancing sugarcane yield. This task force includes representatives from Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore, and national-level sugarcane experts besides Sugarfed. “The task force has been mandated to come up with a plan to increase the sugarcane yield in three months,” he added.