Sugarcane growers seek state advisory price

The Andhra Pradesh Federation of Sugarcane Growers Associations has urged the government to announce state advisory price (SAP) to support farmers.

At its meeting here recently, federation general secretary NSV Sarma said the government had been ignoring the demand for SAP for the past seven years.

The federation is expecting 6 million tonne sugarcane in the current season, which started in the fourth week of November, and as against 5.5 million tonne in 2009-10. He said the federation had asked the government to announce Rs 2,000 a tonne as SAP, and another Rs 250 a tonne each for input subsidy and cutting and transport charges.

Federation president Y Kesava Rao said states like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Uttarakhand had already announced SAP and were paying the cutting and transportation charges too.

Tamil Nadu has announced SAP at Rs 2,000 a tonne, while UP has fixed it at Rs2,150- 2,250 a tonne, Punjab at Rs2,100-2,200, Haryana Rs 2,200, Uttarakhand Rs 2,200-2,300 and Maharashtra at Rs 2,300 a tonne. He wanted the Andhra Pradesh government to fix SAP without further delay.

Meanwhile, sugar crushing in the two units of KCP at Vuyyuru and Lakshmipuram and Delta Sugars of Hanuman Junction started in the third week of November.

He alleged that the sugar factories were denying fair and remunerative price making false claims on the sugar prices in the market. The sugar price as of November 26 stood at Rs 2,990 a quintal (Rs 29.90 a kg) in the wholesale market while the average price last year was Rs 2,660. “Sugar was sold at Rs36 a kg last year only for two months while the average price was Rs26. This year, the market price is Rs 29 a kg and the factories can pay a minimum of Rs2,500 a tonne to the farmers,” Rao said.