Tamil Nadu fixes sugarcane price at Rs 2,650 a tonne

The price has been fixed considering the difficult situation prevailing in the sugar sector, says Panneerselvam

The Tamil Nadu government has fixed the sugarcane procurement price at Rs 2,650 a tonne during the current crushing season (October 2014-March 2015).

This includes a State Advisory price of Rs 450, in addition to the Fair Remunerative Price (FRP) fixed by the Centre (Rs 2,200 a tonne), Chief Minister O Panneerselvam said.

The announcement comes ahead of the Pongal festival.

Panneerselvam said considering the difficult situation in the sector, Karnataka and Maharashtra had decided to disburse an FRP of Rs 2,200 a tonne and fixed the price based on the revenue-sharing formula recommended by the C Rangarajan Committee.

He added whenever the Centre has increased the price, Tamil Nadu has ordered a higher price for cane. During 2011-12, the price was fixed at Rs 2,100 and it was increased to Rs 2,350 in the next year.

Some political parties  asked the state government to increase the price further. They noted Uttar Pradesh pays Rs 3,200 a tonne, while farmers in Punjab get Rs 3,020 a tonne.

In Tamil Nadu, cane is cultivated in 865,000 acres. To optimise production, the state government has implemented various technologies such as a Sustainable Sugarcane Initiative”, drip fertigation, etc.

Sustainable Sugarcane Initiative involves using less seeds, raising seedlings in a nursery, and following new planting methods, with wider plant spacing, and better water and nutrient management to increase the cane yields significantly.

Fertigation is a method of fertiliser application in which fertiliser is incorporated within irrigation water by the drip system.

Small and marginal farmers who have adopted the drip fertigation technology have been given 100 per subsidy and others get 75 per cent subsidy.