Dist sugarcane growers seek more FRP

Tribune News Service

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Jalandhar, August 24

After the announcement of the Union Cabinet to increase the minimum price paid to sugarcane growers, also known as Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP), by Rs10 to Rs285 per quintal, for the next marketing year starting from October 2020, the sugarcane growers in the district urged the state government to hike the prices by Rs50 per quintal.

While welcoming the decision made by the Centre to increase the FRP, farmers said the sugarcane prices are still the lowest in the state as compared to other sugarcane producing states.

The FRP is linked to a basic recovery rate of 10 per cent. It is determined under the Sugarcane (Control) Order, 1966, as the minimum price that sugar mills have to pay to sugarcane farmers.

Gurpreet Singh Atwal, a member of the Doaba Kisan Union, said, “The recovery rate is the amount of sugar that sugarcane fetches and higher the quantum of sugar derived from the cane, greater the price it fetches in the market, however, the farmers in the region are still deprived of the actual benefits. We still haven”t received the pending amount of the crop sold to the government and the private mills. While the amount pending with the government mills is Rs125 crore, the private mills owe Rs185 crore. As per the revised prices, now the sugarcane price per quintal stands at Rs 310 in Punjab. But when compared to Haryana (Rs330) and Uttar Pradesh (Rs320-325), it is the lowest.”

The other farmers under the union claimed that Bhogpur had the largest area under sugarcane cultivation and the produce was directly sent to the Bhogpur sugarmills. Gurdayal Singh, a farmer said, due to unclear dues, we have already reduced the area under sugarcane cultivation. Hence, we want genuine price for our crop.

Atwal further said states such as Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana, which were major sugarcane producers, fix their own sugarcane prices called ”state advisory prices’ (SAPs), which are usually higher than the Centre’s FRP, therefore they demand the prices to be revised.