UP farmers protest against Adityanath govt for not hiking sugarcane price

Farmers in Uttar Pradesh, with the backing of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), laid siege to the states highways, including in Lucknow, on Wednesday against the state for not increasing sugarcane price for the 2019-20 crushing season.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, general secretary of Congress in charge of eastern UP, also sent a letter to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, claiming fertiliser prices had doubled under his regime, apart from the steep hike in power and farm labour costs. She also highlighted outstanding payment for the previous sugar season.

On Saturday, the state had said it would retain the cane State Advised Price (SAP) at Rs 315 per quintal (100 kg) for the common variety of the cash crop. Cane SAP for early variety and unsuitable cane varieties were also kept at Rs 325 and Rs 310 per quintal, respectively.

This was the second successive year that the Adityanath government did not hike cane price. The state had upped SAP by Rs 10 per quintal (common variety) in its maiden year in office, during the 2017-18 season.

BKU had demanded cane price of Rs 450 per quintal citing inflation and increase in farm input costs. BKU UP president Diwan Chandra Chaudhary said, “Now, we have given the government time till December 21 regarding hiking cane price to Rs 450 per quintal and payment of cane arrears with interest. We have also asked them to stop the harassment of farmers in the name of environment, including burning of crop stubble.”

The BKU has warned it would stage another "aggressive" statewide protests on December 21 on the pending issues. The government had made elaborate security arrangements on Wednesday to thwart attempts by the BKU to disrupt normal life or movement of traffic.

UP sugarcane minister Suresh Rana told a news channel on Wednesday the government was ensuring prompt payment of sugarcane arrears, which under the previous regime was routinely delayed for months.

In UP, the country’s top sugar producer, cane farming is done by nearly 4 million farmers with the composite annual sugarcane value chain estimated at Rs 40,000 crore, comprising sugar, power cogeneration, ethanol, molasses, etc.

By November 30, 111 UP mills had logged total sugar output of 1.1 million tonnes (mt) in the ongoing season, according to the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA). UP is estimated to account for 12 mt of sugar production in the 2019-20 season, or more than 45 per cent of the country’s estimated output of 26 mt.