Cane growers want better price for sugarcane

Expressing disappointment over the Fair and Remunerative Price for sugarcane, farmers have demanded a further increase.

The Central Government after a gap of one year has raised the Fair and Remunerative Price for sugarcane from ₹ 2,300 per tone to ₹ 2,550 per tonne for 2017-18. Even with the State Advised Price incentive of ₹ 550 per tone, the cane growers will get only ₹3,100 per tonne which is wholly underpriced, say farmers. Farmers are demanding that the cane purchase price must at least be fixed at ₹4,000 per tonne or better still based on cost of cultivation.

“Usually the Centre revises the FRP every year based on recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices. But it did not happen last year and that added to the burden of the cane growers. Now the FRP has been raised by ₹250 a tonne. Adding the State Government incentive through its State Advised Price mechanism, the sugarcane growers would get only ₹ 3,100 per tonne. This is absolutely not enough as the cost of cultivation has gone up due to factors such as higher input costs, drought-induced irrigation woes, increased labour costs. Also, the private sugar mills were not dispensing with the SAP incentive for more than two seasons. So, the Central and the State governments must find a way out for the cane growers,” observes S. Vimalnathan of the Cauvery Delta Farmers Protection Association.

Last year speaking at a farmers’ convention at Bareilly, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised to take concrete steps to double the income of farmers. “This announcement of the Centre is not in tune with his promise and we expect Mr. Modi to intervene and set things right,” Mr. Vimalnathan pleaded.

“Cane purchase price must not be based on sugar price but must be factored in by the cost of cultivation,” insists senior consultant to Confederation of Indian Farmers Associations (CIFA), and long time sugarcane grower K. Kothandaraman. It is surprising why the State Government was not taking action against the private sugar mills that did not honour payments under the SAP and have run up huge arrears against the cane supplied to the mills by the farmers, he said.

The only solution for the sugarcane growers’ woes was the implementation of the MS Swaminathan Committee Report that would while making cane cultivation profitable ensures that a critical balance was struck among all stakeholders, Mr. Kothandaraman said.