Karnataka - Gulbarga   

Direct factory to announce sugarcane price: growers

Special Correspondent

`It has started crushing operations without specifying it'

GULBARGA: Aland Sugarcane Growers Association president Chandrasekhar Hiremath has criticised Renuka Sugars, which is operating the Aland Cooperative Sugar Factory on lease, for starting crushing operations this season without announcing the price of sugarcane to be offered to farmers.

At a press conference here on Thursday, Mr. Hiremath said that the practice was for all sugar factories to announce the prices offered by them to farmers well in advance of crushing operations.

Since the Aland factory did not announce the prices, sugarcane growers have been left in a piquant situation.

Confusion

They are confused as to whether they should supply sugarcane to the factory or give to other sugar units in Maharashtra, where crushing operations were likely to begin in a week or two.

Factories in Bidar district had announced a price of Rs. 1,100 to Rs. 1,200 a tonne of sugarcane, he said. Mr. Hiremath said that the association had been demanding that the Government fix the minimum support price for sugarcane at Rs. 1,600 a tonne since the price of sugar was high in the wholesale market.

The price of jaggery was also high this year.

If the Aland factory did not announce the price for sugarcane immediately, the farmers would be left with no other alternative but to stop supplying the commodity to the factory and take up manufacture of the jaggery, which was more economical and profitable.

Mr. Hiremath criticised B.R. Patil, Aland MLA, for participating in the inauguration of crushing operations in the Aland sugar factory and not insisting on it announce the price. The Government should direct the factory to announce the price of sugarcane immediately and end the uncertainty among the farmers, he said.

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