UP farmers shift from mentha to sugarcane

With cane prices going up and the payment cycle coming back on track, the Uttar Pradesh (UP) farmers’ honeymoon period with mentha cash crop seems to be over as farmers are finding sugarcane more attractive.

UP produces 90 per cent of the country’s mentha crop, which is used in making menthol.

According to data released by the UP agriculture department, the area under mentha for the year 2010 has declined 25 per cent as compared to the last year.

Though the rates of mentha oil in the open market have been stable for months, the farmers are still prefering sugarcane over mentha this time. In the year 2009, the area under mentha in UP was more than 2 lakh hectares while in 2010 it is 1.50 lakh hectares only.

The department officials said the total mentha production in the country is 35,000-40,000 tonnes every year and UP’s contribution is 30,000 tonnes. Every year only 10,000 tonnes of mentha is consumed in India while rest is being exported to China and Europe. And with the crop area declining 25 per cent, the outptut is set to suffer. They admitted that the higher cane prices have lured farmers to shift from mentha. This year the average cane price paid to farmers in UP was as high as Rs 270 a quintal.

In UP, mentha is being sowed in April and the crop has a cycle of 90 days, thus, giving ample time to farmers to avail the kharif and rabi crop.

Meanwhile, mentha oil price in the open market was at Rs 590 a litre and at the commodity exchanges, mentha oil futures for the period till May 31 were trading at Rs 699. According to experts the rates are not likely to go down in June-July, even after the arrival of new crop as the production will be less this year as compared to last year.