Govt mills paid Rs 1 trn to sugarcane farmers in last 3 yrs: Adityanath

Government mills in Uttar Pradesh have paid out over Rs 1 trillion for sugarcane bought from 4,700,000 farmers in the past three years, which Chief Minister Adityanath said is a record.

Speaking at a programme organised at his official residence, the chief minister said the government's efforts in the interest of sugarcane growers yielded a record payment to them of more than Rs 1 trillion from 2017 to 2020, an official release said on Friday.

This is Rs 46,633 crore more than the combined procured price of sugarcane of Rs 53,367 crore across the three previous years from 2014 to 2017, the chief minister said while referring to the period when the Samajwadi Party government led by Akhilesh Yadav was in power.

Adityanath took over the reins of the state in March 2017.

He said the payment to farmers during 2017 to 2020 is Rs 4,785 crore more than the cumulative payout of Rs 95,215 crore paid during 2012-2017 period, the release said.

Also, the outstanding sugarcane payment to farmers worth Rs 4,466 crore pending during the 2012-2017 period was also paid from 2017 till 2020 to the growers.

In the current crushing season in 2019-2020, the sugar mills of the state have crushed 111.6 million tonnes of sugarcane and produced 12.65 million tonnes of sugar.

The crushing of cane and sugar production is the highest in the history of state, he asserted.

The Chief Minister said the state government is committed to protect the economic interest of farmers. Even during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic when most industries were closed, the sugar mills in the state continued with their crushing operations, he pointed out.

It was the commitment of the state government for safeguarding the interests of farmers that the supply of the sugarcane has remained uninterrupted during the lockdown period, he said.

Though sugar sales remained negligible during the lockdown period, Rs 5,953 crore was paid to farmers in this period.

Sugarcane Minister Suresh Rana said the government's top priority is to ensure farmers get sugarcane price payments and are determined to promote their economic interests combined with their all-round development.