Sugarcane farmers seek Rs 400 SAP

Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, October 20

The crushing season of the Karnal Cooperative Sugar Mill will commence on November 7 but the state government is yet to announce the state advisory prices (SAP) of sugarcane for 2017-18. Farmers are demanding a hike in the SAP to Rs 400 from Rs 320 at present. They are even questioning the condition of the Karnal sugar mill that had stopped working three or four times during the last crushing season, forcing farmers to shift their produce to other sugar mills.

The farmers are also demanding increase in their bonding agreement according to the area under crop, instead of procurement on the average of the last three years, due to which farmers could not sold their whole produce.

However, Sugarfed Chairman Chander Parkash Kathuria claims that the board has finalised the SAP and it will be announced soon. He says that they have decided to advance sugarcane crushing by a month.

The detailed project report (DPR) for establishing a new sugar mill at a cost of Rs 212.50 crore in place of the old Karnal sugar mill, which was started in 1977, has been prepared. The tender process will start soon, he adds.

“We are still waiting for a hike in the SAP. Last year, the SAP of the early, mid and lateral varieties were Rs 320, Rs 315 and Rs 310, respectively, which are not enough for farmers when input costs are rising,” says Rattan Mann, state president, Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU). “We are demanding the SAP to be increased to Rs 400, as sugar prices have risen above Rs 40 per kg,” he adds.

He alleges the Karnal sugar mill is in a miserable condition and not fit for the upcoming crushing season. It is dependent on old machines, due to which it witnessed several hurdles during the crushing season last year. Farmers had shifted to sugarcane last year following decrease in paddy rates, leading to an increase in the area under sugarcane. But now the bonding system has become a headache for cane farmers, Mann says. According to the bonding system, the sugar mill will procure only the average of the last three years while the crop production is much higher. Officials say the area under the Karnal sugar mill is expected to produce around 50 lakh quintals of sugarcane, which it will find difficult to crush. It has crushed around 30 lakh quintals of sugarcane during the last season. Earlier, the mills used to allow farmers to give a bond based on their production estimates, but now the new system restricts sugarcane procurement by the sugar mills as per the average of the past three years, says Des Raj, a farmer.

“We are geared up for the crushing season. After the construction of the new mill, the crushing capacity will increase from 2,200 tonnes crushed per day (TCD) to 3,500 TCD,” says Pradhuman Singh, MD, Karnal Cooperative Sugar Mill.