Sugarcane growers to protest during session

Belgaum: The family of an educated sugarcane grower from Kagwad town, Adinath Bindage which once lived very well on the sugarcane crop it cultivated on 115 acres in Kagwad as it fetched them huge profits.

But the last few years have seen their fortunes crumble due to the drastic fall in the price of cane supplied to sugar factories. “We grow 40 tonnes of cane on each acre of land at a cost of about Rs 10 lakh every season. To make a minimum profit, we need to be paid Rs 3200 per tonne of cane . But due to the government's negligence, we are forced to sell cane at a throwaway price of Rs 2000 per tonne.

The plight of my family has been worsening as a result,'' says Bindage, who pays Rs 300 a day to 10 labourers working in his cane fields and spends a huge sum on fertilisers and irrigation. When I completed my B.Sc degree a decade ago, I was attracted to sugarcane as it was then a lucrative crop. My brother Abhijit completed his engineering degree and landed a good job some years ago in Bengaluru. I regret my decision now as I am in huge debt,'' he says.

The farmer, who has taken Rs 20 lakh in loans over the last two years against the family gold to continue growing sugarcane in his fields, is looking at a bleak future unless the government comes to his rescue. Like him, many growers hope that the authorities will give them their due price.

A sugarcane growers leader, Kalyanrao Muchlambi,charges the government with taking the farmers for a ride. “When the standing sugarcane crop is on the verge of being damaged, the sugar factories approach farmers offering a paltry sum to buy it. And so instead of letting the cane wither, the farmers sell it at a throwaway price,” he laments, accusing the government of failing to fix the price of cane scientifically based on the profits earned by factories through cane crushing, cogeneration and other byproducts.

Cane grower Kiran Patil from Athani regrets that when the price of cane is about Rs 3000 to 3200 per tonne in Gujarat, about Rs 3000 in Uttar Pradesh, Rs 2900 in Uttarakhand and Rs 2900 in Haryana, Karnataka has fixed the cane price at Rs 2500 a tonne. He agrees that the price of cane should be fixed based on the profits earned by sugar factories.

President of the Karnataka Rajya Ryotha Sangha, Kodihalli Chandrashekhar warns that lakhs of cane growers will assembly before the Suvarna Soudha in Belgaum on the first day of winter session of state legislature on November 25 unless the government scientifically fixes the minimum support price for the cane. Revealing that the farmers plan to take out a procession in Belgaum, he demands that the government announce incentives for cane growers as well.