Sugarcane growers protest outside premises of elected representatives from BJP

The aim is to draw the government’s attention to their long-pending demand for increasing the FRP for sugarcane

The Mysuru and Chamarajanagar Districts’ Sugarcane Growers’ Association held demonstrations outside the premises of Lok Sabha MPs Pratap Simha and V. Srinivas Prasad, besides S.A. Ramdas and L Nagendra, MLAs, in Mysuru on Monday to press for the sugarcane growers’ demands including an increase in the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) for sugarcane.

The sugarcane growers from Mysuru and Chamarajanagar sought to draw the attention of the ruling party’s elected representatives to their long-pending demand for increasing the FRP for sugarcane, fixing a State Advisory Price and sharing the profits sugar mills make from the by-products, among other things.

In the memorandum submitted to the elected representatives from the BJP, the sugarcane growers alleged that the Centre had not only fixed the FRP for sugarcane at ₹3,050 per tonne, which was less than the cost of cultivation, but also increased the sugar recovery rate for the FRP from 10 per cent to 10.25 per cent.

Even though the State government had convened several meetings to discuss the sugarcane growers’ demand to increase the price and even constituted an experts’ committee to study the issue and assured the farmers that a report would be submitted in five days’ time, no decision has been announced by the government yet, the farmers lamented.

The Association contended that there were more than 30 lakh sugarcane farmers in the State and sugarcane transaction worth ₹ 30,000 crore takes place every year. The State government earns revenue of ₹5,000 crore every year from sugarcane, the Association said.

The sugarcane farmers in different parts of the country, where sugar recovery rate is less than Karnataka, were receiving more for their produce, the Association said claiming that farmers in Punjab were receiving ₹3,800 per tonne, while the rate was ₹3,500 per tonne in Uttar Pradesh and ₹3,200 per tonne in Maharashtra. In Tamil Nadu, the cost of transporting sugarcane is borne by the sugar mills, the Association pointed out.

The Associations also pointed out that the sugar mills delay crushing their sugarcane, consequently leading to a delay in their payment. The sugarcane farmers asked the government to direct the sugar mills to include interest for delayed crushing and payment to the farmers.