Subsidy likely for mechanised cane harvesters as labour costs surge

PUNE: Both the Union and Maharashtra governments are planning to provide a subsidy to farmers for the purchase of sugar cane harvesters because getting farmhands is becoming difficult amid a likely increase in cane acreage.

"The agricultural ministry is working out a new scheme for agricultural implements, particularly for sugar cane harvesters," said Union agricultural minister Sharad Pawar last week. At the Union government, the agricultural ministry and the sugar development fund are planning to share the subsidy burden. At the state level, the state government and individual mills are expected to bear the rest of the cost. The harvesters cost from Rs 80 lakh/unit to Rs 1.25 crore/unit.

"We are planning to make a provision of Rs 100 crore from the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana to fund 200 harvesting machines on a pilot basis," said state cooperation minister Harshvardhan Patil. The Gujarat government has started giving incentives to mechanical harvesters from last year. The Union agricultural ministry expects that ultimately about 50% of cane could be harvested by machines.

However, there are some technical limitations on the large-scale use of harvesters because imported machines, designed for big farms, are not suitable to Indian conditions.

The use of machines requires the adoption of specific sowing techniques as against the traditional sowing methods. Mills have not met with much success in convincing cane growers to adopt to the new sowing techniques suitable for mechanical harvesting.

Maharashtra farmers had to pay Rs 4,000/acre in the middle of crushing season in January and February to labourers in addition to the wages paid by the sugar mills. Towards the end of the crushing season, which was extended till June end due to bumper production, farmers had to pay up to Rs 35,000/acre towards cutting of cane.

"We are afraid that farmers may move away from cane in the 2012-13 season if the issue of harvesting labour is not solved," said a miller from Pune district.