Cash-strapped cane farmers sell cheap in UP

Panic selling to 'kolhu' (jaggery) units at Rs 160-250 a quintal in western parts of state

With uncertainty looming large over sugarcane crushing in Uttar Pradesh (UP), farmers have resorted to selling the cash crop to kolhu (jaggery) units at Rs 160-250 a quintal in western parts of the state.

Farmers in Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Baghpat, Meerut and Bijnor have been queuing at kolhus, which make cash payment. There are 1,575 such units in western and central UP districts.

Farmers in need of cash for the festival season have been forced to sell to kolhu units. Such selling is also termed as panic selling. The private mills owe about Rs 2,400 crore in sugarcane arrears for 2012-13, which means farmers are in dire need for money.

“The farmers also need fodder for cattle, as jowar stocks start to exhaust by this time. Besides, the uncertainty about cane price and crushing date remains,” Kisan Jagriti Manch president Sudhir Panwar told Business Standard.

In the backdrop of the communal tension in Muzaffarnagar, several kolhu units are not functioning, which means depressed cane pricing by kolhus.

The private mills stand firm in demanding that the state first announce a cane price and then only will they start crushing. The millers also want the state to subsidise them for any price above Rs 240 a quintal.

Meanwhile, the arrival of gur (jaggery) to local mandis has come down by 50 per cent, owing to a lesser number of kolhus operating. “Last year, almost 3,200 quintals of gur arrived in Shamli every day. This year, the arrival has come down to 1,600 quintals,” said Panwar.

According to the latest available figures, about 200,000 quintals of cane had been procured by kolhus.

“The delay in crushing season would further bring down prices paid by kolhus to farmers,” said Muzaffarnagar -based khandsari trader Narendra Kumar.

From December, cane farmers start sowing wheat, for which they would need to get their fields vacated in time.

Earlier, the government had asked private sugar millers to start crushing operations by the date corresponding to the last season. Last year, crushing had started after November 15, while the state cane price was declared on December 7. The cane price fixation committee is likely to meet on Friday.

On the other hand, cooperative mills had been assigned specific datelines for their crushing operations. Cooperative mills in western UP (Meerut, Saharanpur and Moradabad) have been directed to start operations between November 15 and 20. Similarly, mills in Bareilly and Lucknow regions have to start crushing between November 20 and 25.

Cooperative mills in eastern UP have been asked to start operations by the end of November. The state accounts for 30 per cent of India’s annual sugar output and cane farming supports four million farming households in the state.