Even though the sugarcane crushing season is drawing near, a consensus between farmers and sugar millers on what should be the ?right? state advisory price (SAP) for sugar seems to be elusive.
At the final meeting held by the committee headed by the UP chief secretary to fix the SAP, wherein representatives of both the farmers and millers were present, the gap between the two remained as wide and as insurmountable as it was before the sowing season. While the farmers stuck to their demand for nothing less than Rs 280/quintal, the millers declared that going anywhere beyond Rs 160/quintal would amount to financial loss to them.
This despite avid calls by both the cane development and sugar minister Naseemuddin Siddiqui and the cane commissioner that the millers walk the extra mile and make an extra effort to bridge the gap in the interest of the industry.
Speaking on behalf of the farmers, Pritam Singh, a progressive farmer from Saharanpur, in the western UP said that if the SAP is fixed anywhere below what they are demanding, they will not sell their cane to the millers and would make sure that they do not sow the crop in the next season.
?If we do not get a reasonable profit for our labour, why should we sow this crop? While farmers in the eastern part of the state have incurred a total cost of Rs 279 on harvesting every quintal of sugarcane, those of the western part of the state have incurred Rs 240 a quintal and the central part of the state have incurred Rs 252 on every quintal of cane sown, including labour cost. If we do not get a reasonable margin of profit, why should we continue to sow sugarcane and not turn to other remunerative crops such as wheat, paddy and mentha, asks Arvind Kumar Singh, a cane farmer from Basti, in eastern UP, who is a member of the committee.
?While farmers who sow paddy earn a profit of Rs 36,500/hectare, wheat farmers get a profit of Rs 23,200/hectare. Since both these crops can be sown in one cycle year, the farmers who opt for these two crops get a total profit of Rs 59,700/hectare. In comparison to these two, even if the government agrees to declare SAP at Rs 280/quintal, which would include 10% profit to our cost of production, we would be earning a profit of only about 13,000 ? 15,000 per hectare. And since sugarcane takes 10-12 months to sow, this amount is a pittance,? says Arvind Kumar.
The sugar industry, on the other hand stated that paying capacity of the mills would remain in the range of Rs 155-160/quintal and anything beyond this would render the mills uncompetitive. ?A mechanism has to be found wherein a balance between sugar prices and cane prices can be arrived at. Both must be linked for the industry to survive,? said a member of ISMA after meeting the state chief secretary.
Meanwhile, sources in the cane department were of the view that the government will try its best to strike a balance between the two parties and as per feelers, govt was mulling on declaring SAP at around Rs 180-185. Though it would be difficult to get the farmers to sell at this rate, the government is believed to have come to a consensus that the millers can pay an incentive over and above the SAP to win over the farmers.
Another view that is strongly doing the rounds is that the government should declared the SAP for two consecutive years so that the farmers can be assured about a minimum of this price before the next sowing season commences. Whatever decision this committee takes will be finally conveyed to the state cabinet, where a final decision on SAP is likely to be taken by the next week.