News
Aged farmers in the sugar sector remains an issue
Kreetika Kumar June 7, 2019 12:40 pm
The sugar industry has a lot of elderly farmers and it is a cause of concern for many.
Academic Economist Dr Rohit Kishore believes the quality of sugar has also dropped as farmers are not planting new cane.
Dr Kishore says the ratoons are on the farms for 30-35 years which resulted in a drop in quality and quantity.
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“The quality of cane has really gone down. The reason is simple because we are not planting new sugarcane. The government is assisting people, giving money to plant sugarcane. Any policies which come into effect takes time to be fully implemented.”
Dr Kishore says tonnes of cane per tonne of sugar has also decreased.
Meanwhile, the total budget allocated for the Sugar Ministry in the 2018/2019 budget was $62.3m.
