Aska Co-operative raises sugarcane price by Rs 20 a tonne

Aska Cooperative Sugar Industries Limited (ACSIL) in Odisha's Ganjam district has increased the sugarcane price by Rs 20 per tonne this year and fixed the rate at Rs 2,500.
The sugarcane growers in the district were demanding a price of Rs 3,000 per tonne. The ACSIL is the oldest sugar industry in cooperative sector in the state.
Considering all aspects, including the financial condition of the factory and cost factor in sugar cane cultivation, the ACSIL authorities decided to increase the rates, said Saroj Mishra, ADM-Cum-Managing Director, ACSIL.
The sugar factory is providing a rate which is more than the minimum support price (MSP) of the sugarcane fixed by the government. The government has fixed the MSP of the sugarcane at Rs 2,300 per tonne. The price of the sugar cane was decided at a board meeting of the factory, he said today.

"Due to the increase in input costs, we demanded procurement price of Rs 3,000," said Samira Pradhan, General Secretary, Ganjam District Sugarcane Growers Association (GDSGA).
Sugarcane growers had staged a dharna in front of the factory on Saturday demanding increase in the procurement price. They lifted the dharna after president of the factory Bipin Bihari Patra convinced them that the factory is not in a position to increase rates.

The area under sugarcane cultivation in the district has reduced drastically in last few years as the farmers have switched over to other crops. They realised that sugarcane was no more a profit-making crop, GDSGA Vice-President Narayan Jena said.

Around a decade ago, sugarcane used to be grown on 12,000-acres. It has reduced to 6,000 acres, he said.
Meanwhile, processing of sugarcane is scheduled to start this week. The factory authorities have targeted to crush around 90,000 tonnes of sugarcane this year as against 1.09 lakh tonnes last year, Bhagaban Panda, Cane Manager of the factory, said.
"We reduced the target this time because the area under cultivation has come down," he added.