The Yogi Adityanath Government has hiked the State advisory price (SAP) of sugarcane by Rs 10 per quintal for the ongoing 2017-18 cane crushing season. The Government has also said that it will ensure that the dues of the sugarcane farmers of the current season are cleared by the end of the season in April next year.
With hike in SAP, the price of the early variety of sugarcane will be Rs 325 per quintal, general variety Rs 315 per quintal and unapproved will be Rs 310 per quintal. Almost 70 per cent of the cane crop falls under common variety. The hike in SAP would fetch additional Rs 1,100 crore to the farmers during the season. The decision to hike the SAP was taken on Thursday night. The model code of conduct came into force soon after the announcement of hike in the SAP price on Friday as the State Election Commission announced the poll schedule for the State local bodies election.
UP Sugarcane Development and Sugar Industries Minister Suresh Rana said in P press conference on Friday that the actual benefit to the farmers will be over Rs 15 per quintal as the Government has reduced the cost of transportation of the sugarcane from the cane purchase centre to the mill gate. He said for the distance of 1 km and less the cost to be charged by the mill will be 42 paisa per quintal and Rs 8.35 per quintal for distance above 1 km.
The Minister asked to ensure the regular payment to the farmers for their agriculture produce as the Government has taken measures to prevent piling up of arrears this season. He said the Government has adopted stricter monitoring and structural changes, including the provision of a joint escrow account, under which 85 per cent of the money received by mills on account of the sale of sugar would be diverted for settling farmers’ dues automatically. He added, unlike the practice during the previous Samajwadi Party regime, the payment to the farmers by the mills will be made within the 14 days of the purchase of the sugarcane in one installment.
Suresh Rana said during the current cane crushing season the area under sugarcane cultivation has increased by over 2.5 lakh hectares. He said, with the higher cane acreage this season, the State Government has estimated UP sugar output to cross One Crore mt to 1.1 crore metric tonnes. The sugar mills will purchase cane worth Rs 30,000 crore from the farmers during the season. This season, the UP sugarcane acreage is estimated at 22.99 lakh hectares up 11.20 per cent of 2.45 lakh hectares compared to 20.54 lakh hectares in 2016-17. The Minister said that this year, the State sugarcane department had distributed 60 lakh quintals of high quality seed for farmers to improve sugar productivity and recovery.
Earlier, farmers’ organisations had demanded much higher level of sugar price citing rising cost of farm inputs even as the sugar industry had expressed their inability to pay higher price. The Yogi Government has treaded the middle path of marginal hike in cane price to keep the key stakeholders — the industry and the farmers in good humour.
The Yogi government has announced the cane price three weeks earlier as compared to the previous Akhilesh Yadav government, which had announced SAP on November 18, 2016. By November end, all the sugar mills are likely to start crushing operations. last year, 116 units had crushed sugarcane in UP. So far, about 32 mills in western UP are crushing cane.
Meanwhile the UP sugar mills association (UPSMA) has welcomed the government for moderate hike in the SAP for 2017-18. The UPSMA said the industry views the increase with cautious optimism as the cane price payment capacity of the mills is dependent on the sugar prices which may not remain at the current level after arrival of new sugar as well as increased sugar production. It said that the industry view has always been that a revenue sharing model be worked out with a long term perspective.