Orissa’s oldest cooperative sugar unit Aska Cooperative Sugar Industries Ltd has hiked the price it will pay for the produce this year by Rs 210/ tonne.
Farmers will now get Rs 2,210 a tonne of sugarcane they supply to the factory. The authorities have also decided to pay a transport subsidy for movement of sugarcane located at a distance over 10 km from the factory.
Last year, the factory authorities had fixed the price of sugarcane at Rs 2,000 per tonne and announced a subsidy for transportation from beyond a distance of 10 km.
The decision was taken at a sugarcane price fixation committee meeting held at Chhatrapur, the district headquarters town yesterday. Ganjam district collector and the chairman of ASIL’s Managing Committee, Mr Krishan Kumar, presided over the meet.
Besides factory and agriculture officials, representatives of the Ganjam district Sugarcane Growers’ Association attended the meeting.
The Sugarcane Growers’ Association had demanded a hike in sugarcane prices to Rs 2,500 per tonne this year, as prices of other inputs have increased many times. The representatives of the association, however, agreed to the revised price of Rs 2,210 per tonne after long discussion.
“We have decided to increase the price of sugarcane by Rs 210 per tonne this time, considering all aspects,” said the district collector. At the same time, industry authorities also stressed the need to increase sugarcane production by at least 50 per cent in the coming year.