Claiming the Bharatiya Janata Party government to be farmer-friendly, Sugarcane Development and Sugar Mills Minister Suresh Rana said that during the tenure of the Yogi Adityanath government, a record payment of cane price of more than Rs 1,12,829 crore had been made.
“So far, it is the highest payment in such a short period. This payment of Rs.1,12,829 crore is Rs.59,462 crore more than the combined cane price payment of the previous three years. Even, this cane price payment made during the tenure of the present government is Rs.17,614 crore more than the combined cane price payment of the previous five years, which was of Rs.95,215 crore,” Rana said in a statement here on Thursday.
He said sugarcane farmers were even paid Rs.5,954 crore during the lockdown period.
“Due to lockdown, when most of the sugar mills of other states were closed, all the sugar mills of Uttar Pradesh continued their operations. For the prevention of coronavirus and to ensure social distancing after declaration of the lockdown, 100 per cent cane purchase was ensured through ‘SMS Gannaparchies’ in place of printed ones,” the minister said
“In this tough time, the government ensured employment generation by re-opening two closed sugar mills in Pipraich (Gorakhpur) and Munderwa (Basti) of the cooperative sector along with 27 megawatt capacity co-generation plants,” he said.
Both these mills will produce high quality sugar and this sugar will fetch more price which will facilitate cane price payment.
“In the previous years, 30 sugar mills were closed while this government started operation in three closed mills, including private ones,” the minister said.
Rana said that the sugar mills of the state crushed a record 3,262 lakh tonnes of sugarcane in the last three years, which was 355 lakh tons more than total sugarcane crushing of the previous four years.
“In the last three years, the average sugarcane productivity of the state increased from 72.38 ton per hectare to 81.10 ton per hectare. Now the farmers are getting additional production of 8.72 metric ton per hectare,” he said, adding that even there was a record production of 365 lakh ton of sugar in three years.
Rana said that the Yogi government was able to achieve this because of the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“The BJP governments are committed to improving the incomes of the farmers and we will ensure that,” he said.