He mentioned the arrears of the sugarcane farmers as a story of how the goat cried wolf, saying that the one who made the sugarcane farmers suffer by not paying the dues of the sugarcane farmers. minister MRK Panneerselvam has said that the sugar sector abandoned by the previous AIADMK government has been transformed into a refined sector through various measures. tamil Nadu Legislative assembly Opposition leader Edappadi Palanichami's statement has been rejected by Agriculture and Farmers Welfare minister MRK Panneerselvam. In that, the leader of the opposition has issued a statement that the sugarcane crops have been affected due to yellow rot disease, rootworm attack and wild boar infestation in Cuddalore, Villupuram and Kallakurichi districts and the farmers have suffered losses and many sugar mills have arrears of crores of rupees. Till 2011, the sugarcane cultivation area of tamil Nadu was 2.24 lakh hectares under the Kalyanur-led government. But, the later 10-year period of A.D.M.U. During the regime, the sugarcane area decreased by almost 1.29 lakh hectares to just 95 thousand hectares.

Moreover, the report conveniently forgets that the number of farmers cultivating sugarcane has been reduced from 1.50 lakh to 91 thousand under the administration of the incompetent opposition leader. But Thilak did not understand that DMK came to power in 2021 and increased sugarcane area to 1.50 lakh hectares in the last two years only in the current DMK regime. From the 2015-2016 milling season to the 2019-2020 milling season, sugarcane farmers were given a single price of Rs 2,750 per tonne without any increase during the AIADMK regime. After the DMK government took over, the price of sugarcane was gradually raised and now per tonne by the farmers.

Also, the tamil Nadu government has provided financial assistance to sugar mills to the extent of Rs 800 crore directly to the sugarcane farmers as incentives, special incentives and way loans for the production of sugarcane farmers. He mentioned the arrears of sugarcane farmers as a story of crying wolf saying that the one who made the sugarcane farmers suffer by not paying the arrears of the sugarcane farmers till 2021 in the last AIADMK regime is the one who cried wolf. It is unlikely that Kalapetti Edappadi Palanichami, who looted the coffers while leaving the government, knows that the entire arrears have been paid to sugarcane farmers by all cooperative, public and private sugar mills till the season of 2021-22.

In the current season, private sugar mills alone have to pay arrears of Rs.17 crore to sugarcane farmers. This is also being continuously monitored by the department. During Dr. Kalainar's tenure, co-powering project and plant modernization project was announced for 12 cooperative and public sector sugar mills in 2010 at an estimated cost of Rs.1,240 crore. Another achievement of the Edappadi regime is that due to the incompetent rule of the previous AIADMK government, 90 per cent of the project was paid to the contractors without any progress till 2021, leaving an additional interest burden of Rs 1,400 crore on the co-operative and public sector sugar mills.

In 2021, sugarcane crushing efficiency of sugar mills was raised to 9.33 percent from 8.97 percent. Through this, the chief minister has taken steps to get an additional revenue of Rs.100 crore through this department. It is natural for sugarcane farmers to suffer from diseases such as yellow rot (Pokkah Boeng) due to poor soil fertility. Fields where sugarcane crops are commonly affected by yellow rot disease have been inspected by scientists from the Cuddalore Sugarcane Research Station and coimbatore Sugarcane Breeding Institute and the disease control methods to be followed have been communicated to the farmers. Sugarcane fields affected by yellow rot disease have been identified and orders have been given to send the sugarcane to the nearest sugar mill as an emergency measure and the interests of the farmers have been protected. Also, with a view to sensitizing the sugarcane farmers about the preventive measures to be taken to avoid the occurrence of pest attack and yellow rot disease, Sugarcane Breeding Institute, coimbatore and tamil Nadu Agricultural university Scientist.