Members of the District Sugarcane Growers’ Association staged a dharna in front of the district office complex here on Monday urging the State government to fulfil their demands, including the fixation of sugarcane price for the year 2016-17 and implementation of the recommendations of the Dr. M.S. Swaminathan report.
The agitators said that the wages of government employees, MPs and MLAs are hiked without any anomalies, but this doesn’t apply to farmers and their produce. They said that farmers were incurring losses in agriculture due to inadequate power supply and successive drought.
They said the cost of production of one tonne of sugarcane stalk was Rs. 3,088 for the year 2016-17. But the fair and remunerative price (FRP) fixed was Rs. 2,300 per tonne. They challenged the agriculture scientists and experts to produce one tonne of sugarcane at this FRP.
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They also demanded that 50 per cent of the posts in Krishi Bele Ayoga be reserved for farmers.