Friday November 6, 03:25 AM

Source: Indian Express Finance

UP farmers to intensify stir over cane price

By fe Bureau
The peeved sugarcane farmers of Uttar Pradesh have decided to intensify their agitation to get a better price for their produce. In a well-attended Mahapanchayat (loosely translated as meeting of elders) in Meerut on Thursday, the farmers said that if the stalemate over state advised price (SAP) of the Uttar Pradesh government and centre s fair and remunerative price (FRP) continues beyond November 9 then they will start blocking highways and rail traffic in various parts of the state from November 10 onwards. The farmers also demanded that they should get better price for their produce this time as the input cost have gone up. Addressing the almost 50,000 strong gathering of sugarcane farmers, former union minister Ajit Singh said that because of the stalemate over SAP and FRP, the issue is now just not restricted to sugarcane farmers of UP, but has become a question of self-respect for the entire farming community in the country. The farmers have also threatened that they will indulge into large-scale burning of the standing sugarcane crop in Uttar Pradesh if they don t get just price for their produce. We will also gherao the Parliament from November 19, when the session starts to press for our demand, Ajit Singh said. In the middle of all this the logjam over SAP of around Rs 180 per quintal announced by the Uttar Pradesh government and Centre s newly fixed FRP of around Rs 130 per quintal. Though, union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar Wednesday clarified that FRP is just a base price for the millers and they must pay more than that to the sugarcane growers because they are making huge profits, but farmers are far from satisfied by this. Sources said, the central government is working out a compromise formula, wherein states will be asked to pay on the levy price to mills, instead of the full difference between SAP and FRP The agitating farmers are demanding that they won t accept anything less than Rs 280 per quintal as cane price as that is the input cost on the crop this year, which has already undergone many vagaries, including drought and floods. Earlier, too, some farmers in Uttar Pradesh had burnt their sugarcane crop in protest against the pricing. A worried state government had also stopped the transport of imported raw sugar in the state after a group of farmer burnt a cargo carrying raws in Shamli area of the state.