UP cane growers wait for higher sugarcane price even as sugar output falls in country
While there was no increase in SAP last year and more than half the season's sugarcane payment is outstanding, for the current crushing season 2023-24 (October 2023 to September 2024), the state government has not announced the rate.
Harvir Singh
Rajpal Singh, a farmer from little known Bhainswal village in Shamli district of Uttar Pradesh, has received payment only till January 15, 2023, for the sugarcane he sold to the sugar mill in the last season (2022-23).
While there was no increase in SAP last year and more than half the season's sugarcane payment is outstanding, for the current crushing season 2023-24 (October 2023 to September 2024), the state government has not announced the rate.
This means that about 45 lakh sugarcane farmers of the state like Rajpal do not yet know what price they will get for the sugarcane they have supplied to the sugar mills for more than two months.
The State Advisory Price (SAP) of sugarcane in Uttar Pradesh remains stuck at Rs 350 per quintal for two years 2021-22 and 2022-23.
As per law, the price of sugarcane should be declared before the start of the season. This neglect of farmers comes at a time when sugar production in the country will be at its lowest level in three years due to fall in sugarcane production this year. At the same time, due to sugar mills getting better prices for sugar and ethanol, their profits have also improved.
The government of Haryana, neighboring Uttar Pradesh, has increased the sugarcane price by Rs 14 and fixed the SAP at Rs 386 per quintal for the current crushing season, while Punjab government is giving a price of Rs 391 per quintal.
Sugar industry sources in conversation with Rural Voice said that we also do not see any reason for this. There is no election yet, due to which there is delay. If the government announces the price then the situation will become clear to us as to how much we have to pay. The problems of farmers regarding sugarcane price are also increasing.
Accusing the government of adopting a negligent attitude towards sugarcane farmers, the Bharatiya Kisan Union has decided to protest at all the district headquarters of Uttar Pradesh on January 5. The main reason for this performance is not increasing the SAP of sugarcane.
Sugar, jaggery and khandsari industries are realizing that there is a shortage of sugarcane this year and prices will increase.
Entrepreneur KP Singh, who runs a state-of-the-art jaggery plant near Oon in Shamli district, told Rural Voice that currently he is giving the price of sugarcane at Rs 340 per quintal and from tomorrow i.e. January 2, "we will increase the price to Rs 350 per quintal". His jaggery unit, which is running at 60 per cent of its capacity round the clock, is consuming all the jaggery and is supplying it to Punjab.
In western Uttar Pradesh, sugarcane prices have gone up from Rs 340 to Rs 370 per quintal. In such a situation, if the government will not increase the SAP of sugarcane more and there will be competition between the sugar mills and the molasses industry over prices. On the other hand, farmers may reduce supply to sugar mills due to early payment in Jaggery Khandsari units.
The attitude of the present BJP-led government in Uttar Pradesh towards the sugarcane SAP is indifferent. The BJP government, which came to power in 2017, had hiked the SAP of sugarcane for the first time in 2017-18 by Rs 10 per quintal to Rs 325 per quintal. Thereafter, the sugarcane SAP freeze was kept for three seasons. Even during the 2020-21 farmers' agitation, the state government had not raised prices.
Thereafter, before the 2022 state assembly elections, the SAP was hiked by Rs 25 to Rs 350 per quintal. Thereafter, it was frozen at Rs 350 per quintal in the 2022-23 crushing season, while the neighboring Haryana government had increased it to Rs 372 per quintal.
In other words, the Uttar Pradesh government has increased the price by Rs 35 per quintal in six years, while the cost of all kinds of sugarcane production has increased during the period, which has affected the income of farmers.
The Lok Sabha elections are coming up in 2024 and the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh are crucial for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. The state's 4.5 million sugarcane farmers are a big vote bank but the way the last elections have been crucial, the state's sugarcane politics has now weakened as the main opposition Samajwadi Party, Congress and BSP have not staged any major protests over sugarcane farmers' prices.
A little bit of resistance was from the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), which has been speaking out on the issue but it's also not seen in any major demonstrations or protests over the sugarcane SAP.
The Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) will stage a demonstration in the state on January 5. It remains to be seen how much pressure it can put on the state government.
However, all of them are assuming that the government will increase SAP this year. But when it will do so is kind of a mystery in itself because under the current circumstances, there seems to be no reason to delay fixing the SAP and not raise prices.
In the absence of a transparent policy, the plight of millions of sugarcane farmers in the state is the same as is the case with the farmer Rajpal of Shamli district.
Even when prices can get better and paid in time, this apathy of the government is neither good for the farmers nor in the interest of the industry.
