Tilak Ram is in a pensive mood as he sits outside Kisan Sewa Sahkari Samiti in Dadthua village in Meerut, about 100- kms from Delhi. He is mulling over his farming options while awaiting a call from a nearby sugar mill for purchasing his cane.
It’s mid-November and the time for sowing wheat is almost over. Yet, the sugarcane crop of this retired teacher which needs to be cleared first still stands tall in his 26 bighas of land.
“I am in deep trouble. I am still to get ‘parchis’ [slips issued by sugar mills for purchase of cane]. Till I get it, I cannot clear my fields for wheat sowing. There is no point cultivating wheat during the harsh January winter; the chances of crop survival are minimal. On the one hand, we are not getting any money from sugar mills and on the other, there are high chances of losing one crop. I do not know what to do,” he says to The Hindu.
This is invariably the condition of all farmers in this fertile sugarcane belt covering the districts of Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, Shamli, Baghpat and Saharanpur. Thousands of acres of land across the region are covered with sugarcane crop. After long negotiations between the Uttar Pradesh government, the mill owners and the farmers, it was decided that the previous year’s price of Rs.280 per quintal would be retained against the Bharatiya Kisan Union and other farmer groups’ demand of Rs. 301 per quintal being paid to farmers in Haryana. This decision led to a delay in the opening of sugar mills by almost two months.
Last year’s dues
But farmers are more concerned about their last year’s arrears that stand at over Rs.2,000 crore in the State. “Sugar mills have to still pay me Rs.72,000 for my last year’s produce. There are hundreds of farmers in my tehsil whose dues vary from a few thousands to lakhs, but instead of pressuring mill owners to pay our dues, we are being told to be patient. We have never seen such an anti-farmer government,” said Amarpal Singh of Bhuvakpur village in Muzaffarnagar.
Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait rues that the government has left the farmers in the lurch. “The U.P. government is hand in glove with the powerful sugarcane mill owners lobby and it is the poor farmer who is at the receiving end.” Lambasting the Centre for its “faulty policies”, Mr. Tikait said the government was focussing on sugar production alone, without realising that decline in wheat production would make flour costlier and lead to rise in inflation.
Role of ‘kolhu’ operators
Another important aspect of the late opening of sugar mills is the exploitation of small farmers by ‘kolhu’ operators who produce jaggery. “Against the cane price of Rs.280 per quintal, these private players are giving farmers just Rs.170. As the farmer is concerned about his next crop, he has no option but to fall into the trap of the ‘kolhu’ owners. It is a double whammy for the farmer – his earning from cane is being delayed, while chances of sowing wheat this season are also diminishing fast,” said Shandar Gufran, a social activist and educationist.
