IF cane farmers are cheating the system by continuing to plant the unapproved cane variety the Ministry of Sugar will come down hard on them, says Sugar Minister Charan Jeath Singh.

Mr Singh said they had informed all farmers and would continue to remind them to remove all unapproved variety because it didn’t contribute to sugar production.

“We are concerned because the unapproved cane does not contribute at all to the cane production because it has no quality,” he said.

“If farmers are cheating we will go down hard on them and in the next season, they should uproot all unapproved variety.

“We will only allow them to harvest that variety this year, but from next year no farmer will be allowed to supply FSC with that variety.”

FSC made known last month that warning letters had been issued to cane farmers to clear their farms of all unapproved cane variety.