Paswan asks UP to settle sugarcane farmers' dues

Consumer Affairs Minister says it was responsibility of state govts to ensure farmers were paid on time

Union minister of consumer affairs, food and public distribution Ram Vilas Paswan today asked Uttar Pradesh to ensure timely settlement of sugarcane farmer's dues.

He noted it was the responsibility of the respective state governments that the farmers were paid on time.

Addressing the media here, Paswan said the Centre was considering the various demands raised by the sugar industry to help the beleaguered sector in the backdrop of falling sugar prices.

Some of these demands include raising import duty, providing sugar export incentives, raising ethanol prices and soft loan to sugar companies.

He informed the domestic sugar industry had urged the government to create a buffer stock of 10 percent of the annual sugar production to support falling sugar prices.

However, he added that creation of the buffer stock would be rather tricky considering the bumper sugar production and almost 9 million tonnes (MT) of the projected excess sugar stock this year.

"We will have to ensure that any fresh buffer stock created is also utilised within a fixed time span lest it perishes," he said.

India's annual sugar consumption is pegged at 28.80 MT. The sugar companies have already produced over 26 MT of the sweetener in the current season. Add to this, the opening stock of about 7.2 MT, which puts the total availability already at over 32 MT with crushing still underway.

"Our priority is payment to farmers, while also ensuring that the sugar industry does not turn sick," he underlined.

Meanwhile, he blamed the "faulty" mandi (state agricultural marketing/procurement) system in UP for the low procurement of wheat and rice despite the state being amongst the top producing states.

Overall production of wheat in UP is roughly 35 MT and procurement in central pool during the last two years had been merely 6,82,000 tonnes and 6,28,000 tonnes respectively, which is under two percent of total production against the national average of 30 percent.

The annual requirement of wheat and rice in UP region is about 4.80 MT and 3.20 MT respectively.

Paswan said due to low procurement in UP, about 6.40 MT of food grain had been inducted by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) from Punjab and Haryana during 2014-15.

He urged the Akhilesh Yadav government in UP to implement Food Security Act so that the public distribution system (PDS) becomes more systematic and greater benefit percolates to the poor.

He maintained the central government was proactively providing all help to the state governments in the backdrop of massive crop loss in the recent spells of rain and hailstorms.