With private sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh refusing to start cane crushing operations in absence of a viable price policy, farmers in the State have started selling their produce to jaggery units at a lower price.
The private factories account for more than three fourth of the 124 sugar mills in the State. On Sunday, two of the 23 sugar mills in the co-operative sector – one each in Baghpat and Ramala started their crushing operations, sources said.
“With no clear signals on cane price, farmers especially those with smaller land holdings of 2-3 acres and those who want to plant a second crop – wheat, have begun clearing their fields by selling sugarcane to the jaggery units at a lower price of Rs 150-160 a quintal,” said Sudhir Panwar, President of Kisan Jagriti Manch, a farmers body in the State.
High pricing
The UP Government had announced a price of Rs 280 a quintal last year and the broad expectation is that it would be revised upwards this year with farmers demanding Rs 320 citing higher production costs. However, the millers in the State are reeling under the impact of this ‘high’ price and are still to pay about Rs 2,400 crore to farmers. They have demanded that the cane price to be linked to that of the product price.
On Friday, the private sugar factories such as Bajaj Hindustan Ltd, Balrampur Chini Mills and Dhampur Sugar Mills have written a letter to the UP Government reiterating their inability to start crushing in absence of a viable and reasonable sugarcane price policy in the State. “About 80-90 per cent of the private sugar mills in their individual capacity have written to the UP Cane Commissioner expressing their inability to start operations. The others will also write soon,” said Deepak Guptara, Secretary, UP Sugar Mills Association.
Further, in line with the declining trend in sugar prices, these mills have now stated that they can only pay Rs 225 against the earlier Rs 240 a quintal – which accounts for 75 per cent of the product price in line with the Rangarajan Committee recommendations, said Abinash Verma, Director-General of Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA).
Delayed crushing
Last week UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had directed mill owners in Saharanpur, Meerut and Moradabad divisions to begin crushing between November 20 and 25. Similarly, other mills in the State have been asked to start crushing by November 30 without further delay. UP is the second largest producer of sugar after Maharashtra and accounts for close to a third of country’s sugar output of 25 million tonnes.
The early arrival of winter this year has compounded the farmers’ woes as they are forced to clear their fields to plant wheat amidst delay in start of crushing operations.
“The jaggery units are operating in full swing and farmers are selling cane to these units at Rs 185-200 a quintal across the State,” Guptara said. In the riot-hit western UP, the jaggery units are limping back to normalcy, he added.