The Aska Cooperative Sugar Industry (ACSI) has decided to offer Rs 1,200 per tonne of sugarcane to the farmers during the ensuing crushing season. This is the highest amount to be given to the farmers by the factory since its inception.
Last year, the factory had fixed the price of sugarcane at Rs 980 per tonne. The minimum support price (MSP) of sugarcane has been fixed by the government at Rs 811.80 per tonne.
The new sugarcane price was decided after discussions between the factory authorities and the farmers' representatives on Tuesday in the presence of VK Pandian, the district collector.
The Ganjam district sugarcane growers' association and the district sugarcane welfare association had demanded the fixation of price of sugarcane at Rs 1,500 per tonne. “We have agreed to the price of Rs 1,200 per tonne of sugarcane and thanked the factory authorities for providing the highest ever amount this year", said the general secretary of Ganjam district cane growers’ association.
While Sakthi Sugar Limited, Dhenkanal also provided Rs 1,200 per tonne of sugarcane to the farmers, the other four sugar mills located at Nayagarh, Bargarh, Badamba and Bolangir are yet to fix the cane prices.
"We hope that the increase in prices will boost sugarcane cultivation in the district”, said Pandian.
The factory authorities at ACSI were worried as the sugarcane cultivation area was dwindling in the district. The area under sugarcane cultivation in Ganjam district declined from about 7,000 acres in 2007 to 4,618 acres this year. This year, the target for sugarcane crushing has been scaled down to about one lakh tonnes from 1,43 lakh tonnes last year.
"We lowered the target this year because of the drop in area under sugarcane cultivation", said PC Padhy, deputy cane manager of the factory. He said, the factory authorities would encourage the farmers to cultivate sugarcane in at least 10,000 acres of land.