Since the day lockdown was announced in March, many sugar factories in Tamil Nadu have been operating with only 30-40 per cent of capacity utilization, Commissioner of Sugar, Tamil Nadu Reeta Harish Thakkar has said. .

Speaking at a webinar organised by ICAR Sugarcane Breeding Institute here on combating post covid-19 challenges in the sugarcane sector through appropriate technologies and approaches held on June 25, she said that Tamil Nadu Government has been taking several steps to revive the sugar sector such as providing transport subsidy @ Rs.100/ton of cane and disbursement of NADP subsidy amount.

Steps were taken to extend the production subsidy and micro-irrigation scheme under PMKSY (Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana) for 2020-21 as well, Thakkar said Both the sugarcane farmers and the sugar mills have been suffering during the COVID-19 crisis and this webinar has been structured in such a way that the sharing of knowledge would help in overcoming the post pandemic challenges the Institute Director Dr Bakshmi Ram said. Issues like challenges of Human Resource Management in sugarcane agriculture and sugar Industry, and combating challenges in the post-COVID-19 scenario, challenges and responses post-COVID-19:

Global, National and state-level sugar production, sugar consumption pattern, revenue sharing formula Vs Fair and remunerative price and impact of COVID-19 on the sugar market and challenges and opportunities for Micro-irrigation in sugarcane were discussed at the Webinar, a release from Institute said today.

Over 660 participants from 19 states of the country and 5 foreign countries had participated and it was moderated by Dr D Puthira Prathap, Principal Scientist of the Institute.