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SV Naik Kochari is a simple, humble gentleman having completed fifty fruitful years in the Sugarcane and Sugar mill industry. In fact, his entry into the co-operative sector was accidental, thanks to the encouragement of the late Appanagouda Patil, a visionary of Sankeshwar town in Belagavi district. It goes to the credit of Appanagouda Patil in setting up the Hukkeri Taluk Co-operative Electric Society. Hiranykeshi Cooperative Sugar Factory for the overall development of the region including the welfare of educated and unemployed youths. He was instrumental in setting up a variety of educational institutions to make his dream come true. In a freewheeling chat, the hesitant SV Naik Kochari goes down memory lane to recall the journey trodden so far. Excerpts from the interaction: Q: How did you plunge into public life and when was it? SV Naik Kochari: It was in the year 1973 when I was studying in the first year of the three-year LLB law degree course. Ours is basically an Agricultural

Gone are the good old days when Sugarcane factories were wholly dependent on crushing cane and selling sugar. Earlier, some well-to-do ones also ventured to set up distillery units to dispose of spirits for liquor companies in order to register profits. But all such practices have been dumped into the pages of history. SV Naik Kochari, twice former Chairman and currently Director of Shri Hiranyakeshi Sahakari Sakkare Karkhane Niyamit, Sankeshwar in Belagavi district opines-“These days, sugarcane factories can survive and continue to remain only if a thrust is given to market byproducts rather than selling sugar alone”. In a freewheeling interaction at the factory premises sometime back SV Naik Kochari was candid enough in expressing his viewpoints on the challenges facing the sugar industry. Third largest producer in India: According to official sources Karnataka is the third largest producer of sugarcane in the country after Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. The climatic conditions of t