RAUTAHAT, DEC 21 - Shree Ram Sugar Mills has announced to begin operation from Sunday. The mills has decided to purchase sugarcanes from farmers at a price fixed by Federation of Sugar Producers (FSP).
However, it is almost impossible to bring the mills into operation from the stipulated time, as the farmers have been refusing to sell sugarcane at the price fixed by FSP, arguing that the price was unrealistic and low.
Earlier, FSP had fixed the price of sugarcane at Rs 124 per quintal this season, down from Rs 140 of last year.
"How could we sell the sugar cane at such a low price, which does not even meet the investment cost?" said Krishna Yadav, Central Member of Federation of Sugarcane Producers.
Sunil Kumar Yadav, a local sugar cane farmer, said that he was ready to let the sugarcanes decay at the field rather than selling at such a low price.
However, M. S. Das Pandey, manager of the mill, said that the mills was forced to reduce the price of sugarcane, especially because the mills failed to ensure their competitiveness in the markets due to smuggled cheaper Indian sugar.
Meanwhile, the sugarcane production in the district, according to Rautahat Sugarcane Producers Association, has declined this year as compared to the last year.
The farmers had planted sugarcane in 14,000 bighas last year while they cultivated it only in 12,000 bighas this year.Posted on: 2003-12-22 04:25

Post Your Comment

Please note that all the fields marked * are mandatory.

* Full Name

* Address

* Email Address

* Comment
[Some of the HTML tags you can use : <b>, <i>, <a>]

* Captcha

Get another CAPTCHA code