The Centre may have alleviated some of the worries of cash-strapped sugar mills in the country with a revised ethanol policy and promises to examine export incentive on raw sugar, but farmers in western Uttar Pradesh are not hopeful.
About 750 farmers committed suicide in Uttar Pradesh during 2013 (6.4 per cent of total farmer suicides in India) due to their inability to pay off debts. The numbers could rise this season, warn farmers from the area.
“This year there will be more suicides since there has been no payment yet. There is low demand for cane and it’s delaying the sowing of wheat. About 21 per cent of farmers in Baghpat alone are yet to sow wheat as their fields have still not been cleared of cane,” said Udayveer Singh, a sugarcane farmer, who spoke to BusinessLine on the sidelines of the “Sugarcane and Gur Festival” organised by Navdanya on Saturday.
Farmers in the region usually alternate between cane and wheat in six-month cycle.
“Wheat sowing should have begun already by mid-December. If there is a delay in the harvest, it affects local consumption and there’s a shortage of cattle feed,” said Singh.
Rising input costs
“Input costs have gone up, particularly for weedicides and pesticides along with higher diesel prices. About three years ago, we would spend maybe ₹200-250 on inputs for one bigha (about half an acre). Today, that’s about ₹1,300,” said Rakesh Chauhan, a cane farmer based near Baraut, also in Baghpat district.
The UP government set the State Advised (SAP) of cane at ₹280/quintal for the second consecutive season. Mills are required to pay ₹240/quintal within 14 days of procurement with the remainder payable within three months of crushing season ending. Farmers, however, reiterate that it should be at least ₹350/quintal.
“Farmers have been selling to smaller kolhus and big gur (jaggery) units since we are getting about ₹200/quintal from them. Mills began crushing late this season, around December, and gur buyers paid us immediately unlike the mills,” said Chauhan, adding that rising transportation costs due to poor roads.