Amaravati: Twenty-two of the 24 cooperative sugar mills in the state are struggling for survival.
The mills owe Rs 150 crore to sugarcane farmers. The Group of Ministers (GoM) comprising agriculture minister Kurasala Kannababu, Botcha Satyanarayana and Mekapati Gautham Reddy has held several rounds of discussions in the last few months but a resolution is yet to be chalked out. The farmers have been staging protests in different districts demanding clearance of dues from sugar mills.
Initially, the government wanted to sell stocks in the mills to clear the dues. However the financial institutions which have given loans to the mills staked claimed over the revenues accrued through sale of sugar stocks.
Farmers’ organisations have been demanding that the government should clear the dues from the exchequer without waiting for the sale of sugar stocks or measures to be initiated under Revenue Recovery Act. Across the country, sugar mills are struggling to manage the situation due to high production cost and low MSP. While the mills were made to buy sugarcane from farmers at fair and remunerative price, the government’s minimum support price (MSP) is not matching their production cost.
“MSP on sugar was not increased proportionately to cane prices while governments increased the cane purchasing price to appease growers,” said a senior official working in a cooperative sugar factory.
Although the sugar mills were told to pay the farmers within two weeks, many mills failed to clear dues even after three years. “The cultivation of sugarcane is unviable due to increase in labour costs and financial status of the sugar mills,” said a sugarcane farmer. He said they were unable to recover at least input cost as the mills were not clearing their dues for months together.
The above news was originally posted on timesofindia.indiatimes.com
