Bidar: "Cooperative institutions should not make profit at the cost of farmers' interests. Their welfare should be their first priority," Agriculture Minister Bandeppa Kashempur said here on Saturday.

The Minister was speaking at the Gulbarga division-level sugarcane growers' association organised by the Confederation of Indian Farmers' Associations.

He called upon the cooperative sugar factories not to indulge in election politics, but should take up welfare of farmers.

Sugar factories in Maharashtra gave farm development and housing loans to farmers and loans for marriage and education. They provided facilities such as drinking water, and subsidised inputs to farmers. Factories in Karnataka should emulate them, the Minister said.

Mr. Kashempur called upon farmers to change their crop pattern to supply sugarcane to factories throughout the year. A slight modification in crop pattern ensured that sugar factories could crush cane for 240 days, he said.

He urged the farmers to adopt improved cultivation practices to increase yield that was about 20 tonnes per acre now. The productivity in other parts of the State and in other States was about 40 tonnes per acre. Some farmers, who had adopted natural farming and Palekar method of farming, had achieved 120-150 tonne per acre, the Minister said.

Private initiatives

P. Chengal Reddy, federation secretary-general, said the federation was supporting private initiatives in the field of agro-industry.

"We are supporting the move to release agricultural produce market from the monopoly of agriculture cooperatives and open it up to private enterprise," he said.

Mr. Reddy said that the federation had been supporting the plans of Reliance Industries Ltd. to set up private sugar factories in Maharashtra.

He demanded the Government to allow private enterprise in the field of ethanol production and distribution.

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