Patna, Feb. 2: The state government has decided to boost sugarcane production. It would provide funds and tractor trolleys to motivate farmers for sugarcane cultivation.

The initiatives of the government were made public today at a workshop titled “Policy for sugarcane development in Bihar” at Scada Business Centre. The event was organised by Bihar Agriculture Management and Extension Training Institute (Bameti) in association with the sugarcane development department. Most of the speakers emphasised the need to focus on inter-cropping, which is helpful in increasing the productivity and profitability of sugarcane-growers.

Inaugurating the workshop, sugarcane industries minister Awadhesh Prasad Kushwaha said: “We are committed to increase the productivity of sugarcane. We will try to bring it on a par with that of Maharashtra’s 80 metric tonne/hectare and Tamil Nadu’s 100 metric tonne/hectare. For this, the government has earmarked Rs 50 crore for the next financial year.”

The funds would be utilised to promote inter-cropping, providing subsidies on various items such as bio and vermin compost, purchase of machinery, training farmers to carry out scientific farming and others, Kushwaha said. He added the state government has decided to provide tractor trolleys to 1,000 farmers in sugarcane-growing districts at 50 per cent subsidy with a maximum cap of Rs 40,000 (as subsidy).

The government would also provide six quintals of high quality seeds free of cost to six farmers of every village in the sugarcane producing area, the minister added.

The farmers, who attended the workshop, came up with a slew of demands to overcome their concerns and asked the scientists to come up with a better variety of sugarcane seed.

Joint director of sugarcane department Sunil Kumar Pankaj, Bameti director R.K. Sohane, officers of sugar mills and sugarcane department, scientists of Rajendra Agricultural University, Pusa, Indian Sugarcane Research Institute, Lucknow, and a host of farmers participated in the programme.