In a significant boost to cooperative participation, Chhattisgarh Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sharma distributed share certificates to 4,691 sugarcane farmers, making them shareholder-members of the Bhoramdeo Cooperative Sugar Producers Factory.
The move fulfils a long-pending demand of farmers who had been supplying sugarcane to the mill despite not being shareholders.
Addressing a farmers’ conference in Kawardha, Sharma said the initiative would strengthen farmers’ participation in the cooperative, enhance their income, and accelerate sugarcane production in the region. The mill crushed 255,818 metric tonnes of sugarcane during the last season and now has nearly 23,000 shareholder-members.
He urged farmers to raise sugarcane supply to 450,000 metric tonnes this season, assuring timely FRP payments, better recovery, and higher future dividends. Sharma also promised efforts to increase the sugarcane bonus.
The Deputy CM encouraged farmers to adopt natural and organic farming, while announcing technical guidance on organic certification later this month to help expand market access for Chhattisgarh’s farm produce.
