Webinar on In-migrants in farm and sugarcane sector was organized at IISR

A webinar on the topic “In-migrants in farm and sugarcane sector”was organized at ICAR- Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research, Lucknow on 13thAugust, 2020 from 11.00 am to 1.30 pm.

The panelists of the webinar were Shri Sanjay R. Bhoosreddy, Additional Chief Secretary, Sugar Industry and Cane Development, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh; Shri Vijay Sardana, Techno-Legal and Business Risk management Expert, New Delhi; Professor KushankurDey, Food and Agri Business Management, Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow. Dr. A.K. Sah, Principal Scientist, IISR was the Convenor of the Webinar.

The webinar was chaired by Shri Sanjay R. BhoosreddyJi. Dr. A.D. Pathak, Director, ICAR-IISR, Lucknow formally welcomed the Chairman and Panelists and also put his remarks on the effort of IISR for creating employment opportunity in jaggery, cane cultivation and intercropping. Dr. A. K. Sah, presented background information on returnee migrants and opportunity of employment in agriculture and sugarcane.

About 125 participants from Research Institutes, Sugar Mills, Cane Department and Universities attended the webinar.

The major points emerged out of deliberations are as follows:

• More than 10.0 lakh labours were engaged in harvesting of sugarcane and other activities during this pandemic.
• About 75000 sugar mill workers were continuously employed in sugar mills even after end of crushing season on 19th June, 2020.
• In Uttar Pradesh 36 lakh migrants returned during lockdown, out of this 20.37 lakh (54%) were skilled workers and 3.19 lakh were women
• UP Workmen and Labour Commission under the Chairmanship of Honourable Chief Minister Shri Yogi AdityaNathJi was formed and an Integrated Employment Portal was created to create data base of all these returnee migrants.
• For creating jobs for 75000 women, process for formation of 5 Self Help Groups in each of 125 Cane Development Council was initiated. In each SHG 10-20 women farmer/worker will be engaged in production and distribution of cane nurseries.
• Rural entrepreneurship in pulp and paper making from sugarcane baggase may be explored.
• Returnee migrants may be engaged locally in Pitt digging for making silage from green cane top.
• There is huge potential of livelihood for skilled returnee migrants in making traditional food items from sugarcane juice like Jaggery, syrup, chikki, candy etc. Technical backstopping from IISR in this regard is expected.
• Value-Chain for product diversification in sugarcane should be established in rural settings in true spirit of clarion call by Hon’ble Prime Minister i.e. “Being Vocal for Local”. The provision under MSMEs may be leveraged for sugarcane value chain development.
• Secondary agriculture and cluster based farming has the potential to create jobs and income for returnee migrants and it should be explored with suitable policy and technical support.

The Webinar was coordinated by Dr. Rajesh Kumar and Dr. S.S. Hasan, Principal Scientists, IISR, Lucknow.

The webinar ended with formal vote of Thanks by Dr. S.S. Hasan, Coordinator of Webinar.