Indian sugar mills association

E-governance comes as a major relief for UP sugarcane farmers

Date:	02 Mar 2012

Source:	The Financial Express

Reporter:	Deepa Jainani

News ID:	959

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For the three million sugarcane farmers and 125 sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh, the e-governance project of the state`s sugarcane department— the Sugarcane Information Service (SIS)—is being seen as a watershed. The IT solutions project has not only brought all their interactions and transactions on an online platform, thereby fostering transparency, but has also helped increase the income of the mills by R700 crore annually and pegs the same for the farmers at R846.54 crore.

For UP, the second-largest sugarcane producer state in the country, this project, which has won the state the gold medal at the prestigious National e-governance Award for 2011-12, is a great achievement given the fact that sugarcane production is the backbone of the state`s economy.

The SIS, brainchild of state cane commissioner Kamran Rizvi, was launched in 2010-11 crushing season, making it mandatory for all the 125 sugar mills to have websites giving all information, right from the issuance of supply tickets to sugarcane price payment on a daily basis.

Talking to FE , Rizvi said what is being now called the largest rural IT platform in the country got 15 lakh hits in the last 150 days.

“It was meant to facilitate interactions and transactions between the farmers, the mills and cane cooperatives. Earlier, farmers had to run from pillar to post to get even the slightest of information from mills or cane societies. More often than not, the poor and illiterate farmers were taken for a ride,” he said.

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