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Brief History
Dr. Patanagraoji S. Kadam’s concern for the rural poor and therefore he started planning in socio- economic sector right from 1971 in the drought prone areas of Khanapur and Palus Talukas in the Western part of Sangli District.
Dr. Patnagrao Kadam reviwed the situation and showed way to his thousands of followers, for the last 30 years, he has been relentlessly trying to bring about changes in social and economic conditions of the people of this area.
“Sonhira” Sugar Factory is an important milestone i “Sonhira” Sugar Factory is an important milestone in Agro-industrial
transition conceived by Dr. Patangrao Kadam. Sonhira is like a KALPAVRUKSHA for
the people of the area around which he has visualised the flow of economic
opportunities. Dr. Patangrao Kadam had identified a number of interconnected
plans and programmers which include production of spirit and other chemicals
from molasses, Co-generation of electricity from Bagasse, Sugarcane development
and research project, agricultural information services for farmers.
Sonhira has got power to change the social, economic environment of
the area. in operation from 1999 by Founder Chairman Hon’ble Dr. Patangrao Kadam, Minister for Co-operation, Maharashtra State. This plant is working in excellent condition and the performance of this plant is very good. This place is well connected by rails on the Mumbai-Kolhapur main line and Karad station is around 25 km from this plant. This place is easily accessible by road and National / State highway between Kolhapur-Pune-Mumbai as well as Pune-Bangalore National Highway area nearby.
The licensed capacity of the Factory is 2500 TCD. However, Sonhira SSK Ltd. is able to crush now an average of 3500 TCD, fully utilizing their resources effectively. Sonhira have their own cultivation land for cane production and they are spread out to approximately 8000 hectare. The yield is around 5 lakes of tones per annum and this is likely to be increased to 7-8 lakes per annum shortly. With the increase in yield, the cane crushing per day will also be increased.
The climatic conditions, viz. maximum temperatures, humidity, rainfall etc., is very much conductive to grow good quality sugar cane. Yield sugar cane per hector, as also the recovery in cane is high in this belt.
The command area for the factory is in most economically backward area of Kadegaon Taluka, Sangli Dist., of Maharashtra. In general, the selection of site for the factory is very good and there is an assured supply of sugarcane for the factory.
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