In view of the shortage of sugarcane crop in the State and higher sugar prices in the country, Minister for Cooperation and Sugar H.S. Mahadev Prasad today said it was possible to give higher prices to growers during the current crushing year 2016-17.
He told The Hindu , soon after a meeting with leaders of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS) at the Deputy Commissioner’s office in the morning, that it was certainly possible to pay Rs.200 to Rs.300 per tonne of sugarcane above the current Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) of Rs.2,300 per tonne at 9.50% recovery.
He said he would convene a meeting with managements of sugar mills of north Karnataka to take up the farmers’ demand for higher prices and payment of previous dues in Belagavi on Thursday.
Karnataka was facing shortage of sugarcane this year for various reasons. As against 376.65 lakh tonnes of cane crushed to produce 40.45 lakh tonnes of sugar last year (2015-16), around 300 lakh tonnes of cane was available this year (2016-17). This shortage would result in fall in sugar production.
Impasse
The Minister failed to crack the impasse over the agitation of farmers demanding Rs.3,500 per tonne of sugarcane and the latter announced that they would continue their protest at Kondaskoppa site near Suvarna Vidhana Soudha till the government took a positive decision on their demand.
After a meeting with KRRS State President Kodihalli Chandrashekhar, General Secretary Basavaraj, Vice-President Basavaraj Malalli and others at the DC office, the Minister said the farmers were demanding the Maharashtra model in Karnataka and Rs.3,500 per tonne of sugarcane. Their demands would be taken up with the government.
He said there was no difference between the Maharashtra and Karnataka models on sugarcane prices. The only difference was that a few mills were facing shortage of cane in their respective areas were giving higher prices, which could not be the benchmark for all other mills to follow.
The government had already announced FRP of Rs.2,300 per tonne for cane, yielding 9.5% recovery. The prices were higher for every one per cent increase in the recovery. There were around 40 to 45 mills achieving more than 10.50% recovery, which meant that the farmers could get higher prices from these mills as against those achieving 9.50% or less recovery.
However, he appealed to farmers to be patient and said the government would take a decision as per their expectations.
