During Question Hour, Naresh Aggarwal (SP) asked as to why there a vast difference between the sugarcane price recommended by the central government and the farm gate price announced by the Uttar Pradesh government.
State Advised Price (SAP) of Rs 290 per qunital announced by the Uttar Pradesh government for this year was much more than the Centre's Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) of Rs 210 per quintal.
Minister of State for Agriculture Tariq Anwar said while the central government's Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) decides on cost of production of sugarcane based on input prices, SAP is the price announced by some state governments.
The government, he said, decides on the price based on inputs from 16 agriculture universities and discussions with state governments. "States are free to decide on price to be paid to farmers," he said.
Agarwal was, however, not satisfied by the reply and pressed for the reasons for the vast difference between the two prices.
Anwar again stated that the decision on CACP was taken on the basis of wide inputs and states were free to provide any support.
More From This Section
This did not satisfy Agarwal, who accused the Centre of not willing to provide fair price to sugarcane farmers.
To register his protest, he led a walkout by SP members.
Replying to questions, Anwar said CACP calculates the cost of production of each crop every year based on actual expense.
The estimates of cost of production data generally involve a time lag of two years, he said, adding for 2012-13 the cost of production for sugarcane has been fixed at Rs 147.96 per quintal, up from Rs 115.26 in the previous year and Rs 100.81 in 2010-11.
For 2011-12 sugar season, the FRP was Rs 170 per quintal, while the SAP in UP, the biggest sugarcane producing state, was Rs 240 per quintal.
CACP has recommended a FRP of Rs 210 per quintal for sugarcane for the season beginning October 2013.
FRP is the minimum price that cane farmers are legally guaranteed. Sugar mills are free to offer any price above this. The FRP is followed by Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar. SAP is prevalent in UP, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana and Tamil Nadu.