Lucknow: The sugar cycle in Uttar Pradesh, the country's second-largest sugar producing state, has officially started from November 1 and so has the politics that goes along with it.

While on the one hand the state government is struggling to fix the right support price or state advised price (SAP) for the crop, farmers are unhappy as most of the mills are waiting for a fix on the price before they start operating the factories.

“Since the private sugar factories have still not started operations, they are not buying out our cane stock. We want to get our fields vacated so that we can start sowing wheat. It can delay in harvesting cane which will directly hamper our wheat crop. In order to avoid that situation, many farmers are indulging in distress selling. They have already started harvesting cane and selling their stock to gur and khandsari units at a price ranging from Rs 180-240 a quintal, which is much below the expected SAP,” said Yogesh Dahiya, a farmer from Saharanpur.