It may prove to be a major relief for sugarcane farmers as the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved assistance of about Rs 3,500 crore for sugarcane farmers (Ganna Kisan) in a meeting held on Wednesday. The subsidy has been approved to sugar mills for the export of 60 lakh tonnes of the sweetener during the ongoing marketing year 2020-21 as part of its efforts to help them clear outstanding dues to sugarcane farmers. While briefing about the Cabinet decisions, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said that the approved subsidy amount will be directly be given to farmers. Notably, the CCEA has approved the subsidy at the rate of Rs 6 per kg for the current year, much lower than about Rs 10.50 per kg in 2019-20 marketing year keeping in view favourable international prices. Also Read - Finance Ministry extends deadline for implementation of reforms by states Javadekar said, "Both sugar industry and sugarcane farmers are in crisis because of high domestic production in the last two-three years. This year too, production is expected to be 310 lakh tonnes as against the annual demand of 260 lakh tonnes." "The decision will benefit five crore farmers and five lakh workers employed in sugar mills and related ancillary activities. Sugar mills will be able to earn Rs 18,000 crore revenue from the export", Javadekar said. In a separate statement, the Food Ministry said that farmers sell their produce to sugar mills, but they are not getting their dues from mill owners due to surplus sugar stock. Also Read - Sensex, Nifty extend record run on positive global cues "To address this concern, the government is facilitating the evacuation of surplus sugar stock. This will enable payment of dues of the sugarcane farmers. The government will incur about Rs 3,500 crore for this purpose," it said. The subsidy aims at covering expenses on marketing costs, including handling, upgrading and other processing costs and costs of international and internal transport and freight charges on the export of up to 60 lakh tonnes of sugar limited to maximum admissible export quota (MAEQ) allocated to sugar mills for sugar season 2020-21. In the previous marketing year 2019-20 (October-September), the government provided a lump sum export subsidy of Rs 10,448 per tonne, costing the exchequer Rs 6,268 crore.