Sugarcane payments to UP farmers top Rs 1 trn during Adityanath’s term

The sugarcane payments to farmers by the private and public sector sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh during the three and half years of the current Adityanath government have topped Rs 1 trillion.

UP cane and sugar commissioner Sanjay R Bhoosreddy said the cane payments totalled more than Rs 1.03 trillion under the present dispensation. This also included cane outstandings on the mills for the previous crushing seasons. Adityanath had become the chief minister of UP on March 19, 2017.

In the last three years, the state of UP clocked record levels of more than 326 million tonnes (MT) of sugarcane crushing and 36.5 MT of sugar production by the public and private sector mills.

In the 2019-20 crushing season, crushing of 111.8 MT of cane and sugar production of 12.6 MT were registered, the highest ever in UP.

He said the state mills had paid 100 per cent of their cane arrears to farmers totalling Rs 33,048 crore for the last 2018-19 crushing season. “The State Department of Sugar Industry and Cane Development is committed to protecting the interests of cane farmers,” Bhoosreddy said in Lucknow on Tuesday.

However, cane arrears pertaining to the recent 2019-20 crushing season, especially with the private sector mills, are still pending. Of the total 118 mills in UP, nearly 94 are owned and operated by the private sector.

Bhoosreddy said that during the Covid-19 lockdown, when most industries in UP and in other states were shut, only the sugar mills in UP had continued with their crushing operations.

“In spite of the sugar sale remaining negligible during the lockdown, cane payments worth Rs 5,954 crore were made to farmers. In this payment, the decision to tag the sale price of ethanol and sanitiser for cane price payment was important,” he informed.