Farmers cry foul, want sugarcane FRP at Rs 385/quintal

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Bhanu Pratap Singh Gurjar, president of a farmers union in Uttar Pradesh has accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of failing to deliver on promise of providing fair price for sugarcane to farmers. Gurjar’s comments have come at a time when owing to pressure from farmers on the guarantee of a law on MSP, the Centre has hiked the minimum price that mills have to pay to sugarcane growers (known as Fair and Remunerative Price or FRP, by Rs 25 to Rs 340 per quintal for the 2024-25 season starting October 2024. Gurjar said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi had himself promised to give MSP of Rs 450 per quintal to cane during a public rally in Meerut in 2014 elections.”

Despite of the FRP hike, various farmer unions in the BJP-led state expressed displeasure that looking at how much cost farmers have to incur it was a very meager hike. Unions have expressed concern that the hike is too small to cover the high production cost of sugarcane.

While, Gurwant Singh, a sugarcane farmer of Shahjahanpur district in UP, has called the FRP rise “meagre.” Singh said “The increase in FRP of sugarcane by Rs 25 might look like a big decision but is very meagre to what actually is required. The cost of farming has almost doubled in the past few years. The government should at least increase the FRP by Rs 70 per quintal so that farmers could recover their investment.”

While, Gurjar added “We (farmers) are also consumers. The government should also remember this. We also have to buy petrol, diesel, fertiliser, seeds etc. All these things are becoming expensive. MSP on sugarcane should be increased on the basis of farmers’ costs. If the allowance of government employees increases on the basis of inflation, then why is it not done for farmers? We urge the central government to reconsider its decision on the price for sugarcane.”

National Secretary of Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and senior farm leader of West UP, Raj Kumar Sangwan said that considering the way costs are increasing, the FRP could have been increased further.

In the ongoing sugar season 2023-24 which kick-started from October 2023, sugar production was recorded to be 2 per cent lower than previous season. So far in season 2023-24, mills have been able to produce 223.68 lakh tonnes (lt) of sucrose. But due to Government’s curbs on diversification of sugar towards ethanol production, it is expected that production should increase as the current season progresses.

Meanwhile, it is being reported from various quarters that the Government was mulling MSP for sugar.