Different state, same concerns

Most sugar mills in Maharashtra are cooperatives, but face the same problems

Maharashtra has had cooperative sugar mills since the 1950s. The interesting feature of these cooperatives is that they harvest the crop, says Suresh Jawade, a cane farmer from Kharnadwadi village in Sangli district. But sugar price crash has impacted the farmers here too. In November 2017, the price was R3,000 per tonne, but months later it became R2,500, says Amol Patil, a cane farmer from Sangli district. The problem is overflow of sugar. According to Sandeep Gidde, national core committee member of Rashtriya Kisan Mahasangh, the sugar production this year was 60 per cent more than the consumption. The government says that it will buy sugar from the mills, but where will this sugar go? Even the international rate of sugar is lower than the domestic one.