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Sugarcane farmers unwilling to settle for government prices

Atiq Khan

LUCKNOW: A volatile situation appears to be developing in the politically sensitive sugarcane surplus western Uttar Pradesh with the sugarcane farmers determined to thwart the designs of the State and Union governments, as well as the powerful sugar lobby.

While the State-advised price announced by the Uttar Pradesh government has already been rejected by the farmers with protest manifesting in the form of burning of sugarcane in Bijnor, Bulandshahr, Baghpat and Muzaffar Nagar districts, the farmers seem unlikely to accept the fair and remunerative price (FRP) to be announced by the Centre.

According to highly placed sources in Lucknow, the FRP is likely to be announced soon.

Both the moves have been dubbed by the farmers and their representatives as a “sellout” to sugar mill owners.

A Kisan Mahapanchayat held in Bareilly announced its decision to oppose the quantum of sugarcane price. The Mahapanchayat was attended by the Bhartiya Kisan Union leader Mahendra Singh Tikait, president of Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Union V.M. Singh, Baba Harikrishna Malik and thousands of farmers.

“We want to rescue the farmers from the clutches of the State and Central governments. We have declared our own price and if the mill owners refuse to pay the price, the farmers prefer to burn the sugarcane in the fields,” Mr. Singh told The Hindu, adding that the farmers will not settle for a price of less than Rs.280 per quintal.

“The State government has stabbed the growers in the back and the Central ordinance on the fixation of fair and remunerative price will throttle the farmers,” said president of Western Uttar Pradesh Cane Growers Society Preetam Chaudhary.

Mr. Chaudhary said MPs from the cane producing areas of the State will be gheraoed by the farmers when the Parliament session begins from November 19. “A consensus has to emerge for applying pressure on the Central government to withdraw the ordinance and prevent it from being tabled in Parliament,” he added.

It is being felt that the Centre’s move to fix the procurement price of cane, which would render the SAP as irrelevant, will not only ruin the farmers, but the sugarcane crop in both the tropical and sub-tropical areas of the country as well.

The fresh crisis in the sugarcane sector coincides with the decline in the sugarcane producing area from 21.40 lakh hectares in 2008-09 to 17.88 lakh hectares in 2009-10. Consequently, the production is also in for a quantum fall from 1107.82 lakh tonne in 2008-09 to an estimated 980.00 lakh tonne in 2009-10.

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