Salem Cooperative Sugar Mill will be renamed, says Minister Rajendran

Minister Rajendran announces name change for Salem Cooperative Sugar Mill, subsidies for sugarcane farmers and drip irrigation.

Minister for Tourism and Tourism Development Corporation, Sugar, Sugarcane Excise, and Sugarcane Development R. Rajendran said on Sunday that steps had been taken to change the name of the Salem Cooperative Sugar Mill at Mohanur in Namakkal district.

The Minister, who inspected the Salem Cooperative Sugar Mill at Mohanur, had a meeting with sugarcane farmers, labour and sugar mill representatives.

Mr. Rajendran said farmers had demanded renaming the mill to Mohanur Cooperative Sugar Mill and steps were taken to address this issue. There were 40 sugar mills in the State - 16 cooperative sugar mills, two public sector sugar mills, and 22 private mills. In 2022–23 and 2023–24, 10,480 sugarcane farmers received ₹8.40 crore as subsidies. In 2024–25, ₹7.91 crore would be disbursed.

For setting up drip irrigation, 100% subsidy was provided to micro and small sugarcane farmers, and 75% subsidy to other farmers. To procure equipment for drip irrigation, the funds sanctioned by the State government were increased to ₹43,534 from ₹32,715. In 2023-24, a total of 1,335 farmers benefited by setting up drip irrigation on 1,432 hectares.

Explaining about the funds sanctioned to sugar mills, Mr. Rajendran said that in the last three years, ₹694.37 crore loans were provided to sugar mills to make payments to the farmers, pay salaries to the mill workers, and for maintenance works. Similarly, ₹775 crore was provided to sugarcane farmers as incentives in three years. In 2023-24, 119 sugarcane harvesting machines were provided to harvest cane at low cost. The Salem cooperative mill produced 25,000 to 28,000 litres of ethanol a day, he added.