Its sweet news for sugarcane growers as Aska Cooperative Sugar Industries Limited (ASIL), the oldest sugar unit in Odisha in cooperative sector, has decided to hike the procurement price by Rs 210 a tonne this year.
The farmers will get Rs 2,210 a tonne of sugarcane for their supply to the factory. The authorities have also decided to pay transport subsidy beyond 10 km from the factory to transport the sugarcane.
Last year, the factory authorities had fixed the price of the sugarcane at Rs 2,000 a tonne and transport subsidy beyond 10 km.
The decision was taken at the sugarcane price fixation committee meeting held at Chhatrapur, the district headquarter town yesterday. Ganjam District collector and the chairman of the managing committee of the ASIL, Mr Krishan Kumar presided.
Besides the factory and agriculture officials, the representatives of the Ganjam district Sugarcane Growers' Association attended the meeting.
Sugarcane growers' association had demanded hike in sugarcane price to Rs 2,500 a tonne this time as prices of other inputs had increased many times. The representatives of the association, however, agreed with this price after long discussion.