Topic:- Secondary Sector

What is the news?

• Co-op sugar mills being revamped to increase the area under sugarcane.

What is Cooperative sugar factories?

• Sugarcane is the primary cash crop among farmers of the western Maharashtra region. The sugarcane is mostly sold to sugar mills for sugar production. Majority of these mills are cooperatives owned by the sugarcane growers.
• Example, Ahmednagar district has the highest number of sugar factories in Maharashtra.

Purpose:-

• With a view to motivate the farmers for increasing the area under sugarcane cultivation in Punjab to achieve the goal of diversification of crops, the state government has undertaken an extensive exercise to modernise and strengthen the existing cooperative sugar mills in the state.

Opening of Sugarcane research centre:-

• Punjab Sugarfed is setting up a modern sugarcane research centre at Kalanaur in the sugarcane rich Majha belt.

Current situation:-

• The two biggest cooperative sugar mills in the state at Batala and Gurdaspur are being revamped by the state Cooperation department.  The capacity of the Batala sugar mill is being enhanced from the current 1500-3500 tonnes of cane per day (TCD) to 5,000 TCD at a cost of Rs 220 crore. The mill will simultaneously also start producing 15 MW of power.
• Another Rs 425 crore will be spent on modernisation of the Gurdaspur co-op sugar mill to increase its capacity of crushing sugarcane from 2,000 TCD to 5,000 TCD. The mill will also be in a position to produce 25 MW of power besides 100-kilo litres of ethanol per day.

The improvement due to current efforts:-

• As a result of functional improvements made in recent times, cooperative sugar mills in the state crushed 2.19 crore quintals of sugarcane in 2018-19 and succeeded in improving the average recovery of sugar to 9.94 % as compared to 9.48% in the previous year.
• The Bhogpur and Morinda co-op sugar mills outperformed the other co-op sugar mills by achieving sugar recovery of 11% and 10.80%, respectively. Overall the sugar recovery of co-op sugar mills was 0.46% higher than the previous year and the mills produced 1.01 lakh quintals more sugar.

Targeted market:-

• The state government has also started marketing of the sugar produced in its co-op sugar mills. The state Cooperation Minister in a meeting with the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh has proposed that Punjab can meet the supply of sugar being distributed through ration depots in the hill state. He argued that Punjab being an adjoining state, Himachal Pradesh by taking supply of sugar from it can save on transportation costs.
• Apart from this, the Budhewal co-op sugar mill has introduced its own ‘Fateh’ brand of ‘gur’ (jaggery) and ‘shakkar’ (jaggery sugar) in the market.

(Source:- The Tribune)

Question:- How crop diversification will boost the agriculture sector in Punjab?

(Answer in the Comment section)

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