SARLAHI, Dec 21: Local farmers have started taking sugarcane to Indu Shankar Sugar Industry of Hariban, Sarlahi, as the crushing season begins.
“Farmers started bringing sugarcane from Monday,” Yog Narayan Rajak, manager of the Indu Shankar Sugar Industry, said. “We will begin crushing from Wednesday itself. The mill will bring both the small and big plants into operation as we are receiving huge quantity of sugarcane from farmers.”
The industry has 25 sugarcane collection centers in Sarlahi district as well as in Indian villages of Balara, Madhubani and Bhagwatipur.
Two sugar mills in Sarlahi come into operation
The industry is paying farmers Rs 531.20 per quintal as agreed by stakeholders.
Indu Shankar Sugar Industry has the capacity to crush 50,000 quintals of sugarcane per day. It has targeted to crush 3 million quintal tons of sugarcane this season. It has already received 2.6 million quintals of sugarcane from farmers, according to Rajak.
Likewise, Annapurna Sugar Mill of Dhankaul is preparing to start crushing in three-four days.
Last year, it had collected 1.1 million quintals of sugarcane from farmers.
Sarlahi is the largest producer of sugarcane in Nepal. Sugarcane farming is done in 26,000 hectares of land in the district, according to District Agricultural Development Office.
Meanwhile, a new sugar mill in the district is starting trial production from this season.
