Farmers in Haryana reap bitter harvest this season
Cane growers of Haryana and Punjab protest delay in crushing by private mills as fields need to be cleared to sow wheat; no decision on price yet
KARNAL : Sugarcane growers in Haryana are up in arms due to the delay in crushing at private mills. They are unable to clear their fields of the cane crop to sow wheat.
Despite an increase in area under cane, all cooperative sugar mills in the state also delayed crushing by two weeks due to pending payments and maintenance.
The cooperative mill at Shahbad could not run smoothly due to a technical snag. Piccadily Sugar Mill at Bhadson in Karnal failed to start crushing as scheduled on November 21 and Saraswati Sugar Mill of Yamunanagar, which started crushing on November 20, did not open purchase for the largely sown and high-yielding Co 238 cane variety. It bought only the CoH 160 and CoJ 85 varieties.
“Officials at the Saraswati Sugar Mill told us that they have not completed the process of filing bonds or agreements with farmers. The mill is yet to fix a schedule to start crushing the Co 238 variety. This is affecting the sowing of wheat as 80% of the sugarcane acreage is under this variety,” says Rajneesh Kumar, a farmer from Yamunanagar district. State agriculture department officials say the area under cane in the state has increased to 1.22 lakh hectares against last year’s 1.14 lakh hectares.
In 2017, crushing at all cooperative mills started on November 7, but this year mills could not start operations till the third week of November.
“The delay will cause losses to farmers as 20% of the area under sugarcane should be cleared before December 15 for us to sow wheat in time,” says Bharti Kisan Union (Mann group) president Ratan Mann.
SUGAR MILLS SEEK GOVT SUPPORT
Private mills want government relief to bridge the gap between the state advisory price (SAP) of Rs 330 per quintal and the fair and remunerative price (FRP) of Rs 275, which has been fixed by the Centre. Saraswati Sugar Mill chief operating officer SC Sachdeva says, “We have taken up this issue with the government several times but have only been assured that prices will be announced soon. Now we have started crushing operations without mentioning prices.”
Farmers want last year’s pending dues of Rs 10 crore to be cleared by Piccadily Sugar Mill. Farm union leaders say the mill authorities told them that they were waiting for government subsidy of Rs 5 per quintal on total sugarcane crushed by mill that comes up to Rs 10 crore to clear the pending payments. Mill officials say they are awaiting government support to clear the dues of farmers.
PRICE DIFFERENCE
The state government is yet to declare the SAP, which is normally done before the beginning of the crushing season.
Haryana agriculture department’s additional cane commissioner JS Brar says, “Though crushing was delayed in some sugar mills, we are sure the mills will crush the entire produce well on time.” He said the government will announce the SAP soon.
When contacted, Haryana Sugarfed chairman Chander Prakash Kathuria said he was busy in the election campaign in Rajasthan and would look into the issue on his return.