Sugarcane transportation and harvesting cost in Punjab

Sugarcane is one of the most important commercial crops of Punjab. Being an annual crop, the costs incurred in raising sugarcane were comparatively higher than other field crops. Due to its bulky nature, farmers spent hugely on harvesting and transporting cane to sugar mills. A field survey comprising 200 growers was undertaken in major cane growing districts of the state. The results revealed the selling of a major share of a marketable surplus of cane to the sugar mills with negligible quantity to jaggery manufacturers. The cane harvesting/chopping was under a contractual system, including loading for transport to sugar mills. The harvesting cost of sugarcane worked out at ₹5071, while the transportation cost was ₹3479 per acre. Problems encountered by the cane growers included; transportation bottlenecks due to heavily loaded vehicles, based distribution of purchase slips by the sugar mills favouring politically sound/connected growers and long waiting periods in the vicinity of sugar mills during the marketing process.