Sahyadri sugar factory ready for crushing season, targets 11,000 tonnes a day

MASUR: The Sahyadri Cooperative Sugar Factory at Yashwantnagar in Karad taluka managed to raise its crushing capacity last season. Its daily capacity rose from 7,500 metric tonnes to 11,000 metric tonnes. The expansion has considerably improved the factory's efficiency, and sugarcane growers will benefit from it.

The factory runs on the inspiration of the late Yashwantrao Chavan, former Deputy Prime Minister of the country, and the ideas of its founder, the revered P. D. Patil. The factory is moving ahead while carrying forward this legacy of cooperative values. Balasaheb Patil, former state Minister for Cooperation and Marketing, is the factory's chairman. Under his guidance, the factory has made strong preparations for the 2026-27 crushing season.

Arrangements for cane harvesting and transport have been put in place so that 11,000 metric tonnes of cane a day, or even more, can be crushed in the current 2026-27 season. The factory administration has completed all the preparations needed for the season to run without interruption. Meanwhile, harvesting and transport gangs have begun arriving at the factory site and in various villages under the agriculture department's zonal offices. The factory is thus fully ready for the crushing season.

The harvesting and transport gangs that reached the factory site were being assigned to their respective zonal offices. Present at the time were Y. P. Sable, head of the Yashwantnagar zonal office, and fieldmen M. H. More and S. Y. Pawar. Sanjay Chavan, D. G. Sargade, Rajendra Chavan, Rajendra Patil, Vaydande and Atkare were also with them.

The Sahyadri factory has a good tradition of general meetings. This time the annual meeting was held in September. As a resolution paying tribute to former Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar was being read, opponents began creating an uproar. "Questions are asked at the meeting and we give the answers, but the opponents turned the meeting into a marketplace." Even amid the uproar, Sahyadri's members kept their composure.

It was said that the opponents did not want to hear answers to their questions. They only wanted to criticise the Sahyadri factory, which stands tall in keeping with its name. Separate meetings are held where provocative speeches are made and many grand claims are advanced. All of this will be answered at the right time.