JOIN USIn an act of desperation, a farmer on Monday set fire to his sugar cane crop worth lakhs of rupees.Boje Gowda set alight an estimated 100 tonnes of standing sugar cane crop grown on one and half acres of his land at Neelanahalli in the taluk.
The farmer reportedly took the extreme step as he was unable to market his produce, with the sugar factories refusing to buy the crop. Speaking to Deccan Herald, Boje Gowda said, “The Pandavapura factory refuses to purchase our crop, while the only option open for us is the Bannari sugar factory in Mysuru. Even that factory has refused to purchase the crop as the district administration has banned it from importing cane from outside districts.”
Another sugar cane grower, N K Prakash, reportedly for the same reason, has left a few tonnes of harvested crop to rot in the open field and has not harvested another 100 tonnes of standing crop. “We had grown crops based on the assurances given to us by the Bannari factory that it would purchase the crop. But the administration’s order has ruined everything,” says Prakash.
The manager of Pandavapura sugar factory said that it had set a target to crush five lakh tonnes of sugar this season and till now 2.5 lakh tonnes of the produce had been crushed.
DH News Service