Incentivising cane growers: Price stabilisation fund on Centre's agenda

Sources said the first meeting of a panel constituted to look into various issues pertaining to the sugar sector was held sometime back

With sugarcane arrears continuing to remain a major issue, especially in politically sensitive western Uttar Pradesh, the central government, along with NITI Aayog, has started working on a mechanism to create a price stabilisation fund to compensate growers in years of low price. It has also suggested tweaking the C Rangarajan formula of revenue sharing, based on recovery levels.

A formula for incentivising those farmers who grow sugarcane with a higher-than-average recovery rate, along with staggered cane payment schedule, is also being looked into.

Recovery rate is the amount of sugar a sugarcane fetches - higher the quantum of sugar derived from