Sugarcane growers from across the state are planning to stage a massive agitation against the state government for its failure to fulfill some of their demands including introduction of State Advisory Price (SAP) mechanism and payment of sugarcane dues to farmers for the present sugarcane year (2010-11).
“Farmers have supplied around 5 million tonnes of sugarcane to nearly 30 mills in northern districts of Belgaum, Bijapur and Bagalkot valued at Rs 10,000 crore. But none of these mills have paid the cane prices for four months, leaving farmers in deep distress. We strongly protest this anti-farmer stance of the state government,” Kurubur Shanthkumar, president, Karnataka Sugarcane Growers’ Association (KSGA), said.
The mills in northern districts had announced a cane price of Rs 1,800 per tonne as first advance. This is about 29 per cent higher than the fair and remunerative price (FRP) fixed by the Centre for the present sugarcane year.
However, the mills have not paid them despite reminders. When the state government’s attention was drawn towards this issue, the government promised to look into it but has not taken any action, he said.
Apart from the cane price for the present sugarcane year, farmers are also due to get the second instalment for the previous year, which is about Rs 700 crore. The mills in northern parts of the state had committed to pay a second instalment of Rs 200 per tonne of cane, he said.
Shanthkumar said, the farmers would launch a massive dharna in front of the chief minister’s residence, if the government fails to take a decision before April 10, 2011.
As regards the SAP mechanism in the state, the government was using delay tactic to avoid its introduction as it would be detrimental to the interests of the sugar mills, he charged. “One year ago, the state government had constituted a committee headed by agriculture expert S A Patil and fixed a timeframe of six months to work out the ways and means to introduce SAP system. But, the committee has met only once during the last one year and has not done any work in this regard,” Shanthkumar, who is also a member of the committee, said. He said the government lacked the will to bring in an SAP Act and implement the system. The SAP Act will enable the state to fix cane price annually.
Presently, there is no SAP system in Karnataka and mills fix the cane price arbitrarily without consulting the government and farmers. However, the price is usually higher than the fair and remunerative price (FRP) announced by the Centre. The SAP system is presently followed in the states of Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
According to Shanthkumar, there is a provision for state governments to introduce the SAP Act which will help the government fix the cane price scientifically. For the present sugar season (October 2010-September 2011), the state government has not fixed the cane price despite several reminders from farmers, he said.
The sugarcane growers have also demanded a higher FRP for 2011-12 as the FRP of Rs 1,450 per tonne fixed by the Centre recently is barely sufficient to meet the cost of cultivation, Shanthkumar added.
