Baster, the Maoist hotbed in the State infamous for its bitter violence and famous for the production of sweet sugarcane has recorded sharp decrease in production of sugarcane this year. Despite modern technique of irrigation, Narayanpur and other districts have recorded poor sugarcane produce this year, said Joint Director Agriculture department RK Kashyap.

Farmers engaged in sugarcane production complained of not getting right price of their produce last year. RK Kashyap said he received complaint regarding sharp plunge in production and therefore now farmers are being motivated to show interest towards Sugarcane production. It is to be noted that initially Bastar was known for sugarcane production but now farmers started showing aversion towards this cash crop since they are not getting the desired returns.

Few years back, even thought there was lack of irrigation facilities in the region, farmer used to grow sugarcane even on the bank and shore of the river and big nullah. Now with almost better irrigation facilities, sugarcane production has dramatically dropped to the extent of being negligible. The sowing of sugarcane in Bastar district has seen a downfall however in other districts of the division the sugarcane sowing was all time low.

In the Bastar division this year sugarcane production was targeted 20307 hectare, against which only 20149 hectares of land were used for the sugarcane sowing this year. Bastar district 10960 hectares, in Kondagaon 115, in Bijapur 4 hectares and in Kanker only 65 hectares has been used for sugarcane sowing, sources said.