With just a month remaining for sugarcane crushing, a confrontation between farmers and private millers in Uttar Pradesh on the price to be paid to growers is on the cards. In no exception to previous years, both parties have divergent views on what should a farmer get for his produce.
At a meeting of a committee formed under the chairmanship of Uttar Pradesh Cane Commissioner Kamran Rizvi to fix the state-advised price (the price of sugarcane fixed by state which all mills within its jurisdiction has to pay), the view put on sugarcane price by both the stakeholders, private millers and farmers was diagrammatically different, forcing him to appeal to both the parties to shorten the huge gap in order to facilitate a smoother working of the sector.
The confrontation between the farmers and the millers, like every year, revolved around the issue of sugarcane pricing.
But what was interesting in today’s meeting was that while the farmers are demanding Rs 320-325 for every quintal of cane, the millers categorically stated that they are in no condition to pay anything beyond last year’s State Advised Price (SAP) of Rs 165 per quintal.
Though the sparring between both the stakeholders is a regular feature in the state, what is unusual is the huge difference between the ideal price demanded by both of them.
?The cost of sugarcane production has gone up substantially this year. The cost of sugarcane is coming to approximately Rs 306 per quintal this year. If a minimum 5% profit is given to the farmers, the SAP should be fixed at Rs 322 per quintal. If a lesser SAP is fixed, farmers will not supply cane to the mills,? said Arvind Kumar Singh, a member of the committee formed to fix the SAP for sugarcane under the chairmanship of the cane commissioner.
On the other hand, the sugar industry, represented by Indian Sugar Manufacturers Association members, is categorical that anything beyond Rs 165 would not be acceptable to it.
?The industry has made huge losses last year and we are making huge loss on every quintal of sugar produced by us. The cost of sugar production is coming to Rs 3,600 a quintal, and we are making a loss of rs 600 on every quintal,? said an representative of a sugar mill, requesting anonymity.
?The industry is in no position to pay anything beyond Rs 150-155 per quintal of cane but since last year’s SAP was Rs 165 a quintal, we will not expect the farmers to settle for anything less than that.
? Last year has been a phenomenal year for the farmers, which saw an escalation in cane price every day. And off the records farmers were paid as high as Rs 350 a quintal at Sardarnagar sugar mill in Gorakhpur and Hata mill in Kushinagar. Now expecting farmers to settle for Rs 165 a quintal is absurd,? Singh said, adding that ?when the mills do not share their profit with us, how do they expect us to participate in their losses??
In 2009-10 crushing season, sugar mills were forced to pay absurdly high prices to farmers as sugarcane production was expected to be low initially, which set off a mad scramble among the mills to get as much cane as possible.
