Govt flayed over sugarcane price

Vijayawada: With the drastic dip in sugarcane cultivation area in the State, farmers are left high and dry. The sugarcane cultivation area has come down to 2.4 lakh acres in the current year against three lakh acres last year. As a result, only 50,000 tonnes of sugarcane is reaching sugar factories for crushing against the total crushing capacity of 1.5 lakh tonnes.

In a round-table held here on Tuesday, AP Rytu Coolie Sangham Krishna district president Y Kesava Rao lamented over Central government’s recommendation to pay Rs 2,300 per tonne of sugarcane against last year’s price of Rs 2,600.

He said that four cooperative sugar factories were closed in the recent past and three private sugar factories are on the verge of closure.

He demanded the government to make the expert committee report, constituted to study about the crisis of sugarcane farmers in the State, public, and alleged that it was only protecting the interests of sugar industries.

He said that a tripartite meeting should be convened with farmers, government and sugar factory managements to solve the crisis in sugar cane cultivation.

MLC V Balasubrahmanyam said sugar cane farmers are switching over to alternate crops due to losses in sugar cane cultivation. Meanwhile, farmers demanded that the government announce an advisory support price and bring out a GO to facilitate the return of sales tax to farmers.