Pawar asks sugar mills, farmers to resolve price row to start crushing operations news

Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, is said to have brokered a truce yesterday between farmers and warring sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh, the country's largest producer of the sweetener.

According to sources the millers in UP may agree to pay farmers Rs180-Rs200 per quintal for the cane purchased this season. Concluding the meeting Pawar said he has appealed to the millers to resolve the issue at the earliest.

Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, is said to have brokered a truce yesterday between farmers and warring sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh, the country's largest producer of the sweetener.

According to sources the millers in UP may agree to pay farmers Rs180-Rs200 per quintal for the cane purchased this season. Concluding the meeting Pawar said he has appealed to the millers to resolve the issue at the earliest.

He said the government was trying to ensure that the crushing operations start in UP as early as possible. He said mills in other states like Tamil Nadu,Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat have already started crushing operations.

Meanwhile, according to sources while the UP sugar industry could pay a price higher than the state advised price (SAP) of the UP government, the exact amount of incentive will be worked out at a meeting of the UP millers with the state government on Wednesday and if all goes well, majority of mills in the state could resume crushing form mid-November.

The deadlock came about with sugarcane farmers from UP not only rejecting out of hand, both the centre's 'fair and remunerative price' (FRP) of Rs130 per quintal as well as the state government's state advised price (SAP).

The state government has asked the district administrations of the cane producing districts to facilitate a mutually agreed price between the millers and farmers.

Meanwhile, Ramala cooperative mill in Baghpat and Sneh Roald cooperative in Bijnore did not see a single farmer turn up to provide cane to the factories despite both factories set to start crushing.

Any further delay in crushing is likely to worsen the shortage in the country, which is the second-biggest producer after Brazil.

Meanwhile, in a move that will help break the deadlock between sugar millers and cane growers in UP, one of the state's biggest sugar producers, Simbholi Sugar Mills Ltd has pledged to start the crushing season from Wednesday.

Sugar production in UP is set to decline marginally at nearly 40 lakh tonne as the area under sugar cane cultivation is estimated to have fallen 17 per cent in the 2009-10 season as farmers increasingly switch to other crops.

The 2008-09 season production (October-September) was 40.64 lakh tonne, while the total area under cultivation was 21.4 lakh hectare, which is estimated to have reduced to 17.88 lakh hectare this year, according to a UP Cane Development Department official.

He said cane production was no longer a remunerative proposition for farmers due to factors like delay in payments. He added that farmers were going in for other crops like wheat and paddy, which give better yields and quick price realisation.

The decline in cane area is likely to affect sugar output in the state which is likely to be 39.6 lakh tonne.

source: domain-b