Maharashtra’s sugarcane crushing is all set to extend by at least a fortnight as mills complain of acute shortage of harvesting labourers. Mills say that at present around 15-20 per cent less labourers have turned up for duty this season.

The start of the sugarcane season in Maharashtra is marked by the seasonal migration of around 7-8 lakh labourers from Marathwada and North Maharashtra to the mills in various parts of the state. These labourers are employed by mills through their contractors. While mechanised harvesters are also employed to harvest cane, they harvest less than 1 per cent of the total cane in the state. These labourers are land holders themselves and migrate once they finish sowing of rabi crops like chana, wheat etc in their fields. Given the moisture stress often associated with these area, these farmers take up migratory work to supplement their income.

Suryakant Patil, managing director of Sangli-based Mohanrao Shinde Cooperative Sugar Mill, said their mill has seen almost a 30-32 per cent dip in arrival of harvesting labourers. This paucity of labour has resulted in the mill operating below its capacity. “As against our capacity of 4,000 tonnes per day, we are at present crushing 3,000 tonnes per day,” he said. Patil attributed the better moisture condition in Marathwada for labourers not turning up.

“Most of the labourers have decided to to stay back and take care of their crops,” he said. The labour trouble has cast its shadow across the state as mills form Marathwada, as well as Western Maharashtra, have reported labour paucity.
Rohit Pawar — chief executive officer (CEO) of Baramati Agro Limited, which operates two mills in Aurangabad and Pune district — said this unprecedented labour problem would extend the sugarcane crushing season of the state.

“The season was supposed be less than 90 days as drought and heavy rain have wrecked havoc on the standing cane crop in the state. However, in view of this labour trouble, we feel the season would extend by at least a fortnight,” he said.

Maharashtra has around 600 operational mechanised harvesters but most farmers feel that such machines are unable to do justice to the geographical spread of the cane fields. Given the small and fragmented land holdings, these machines find it difficult to use these machines.