Sugarcane farmers in distress as several mills delay payments
Sugarcane farmers are facing financial distress due to delayed payments by sugar mills, with outstanding bills totaling Rs 1,500 crore since December. Despite crushing 5.8 crore tonnes of sugarcane from October 2023 to March 2024, 28 mills in Belagavi district owe Rs 216 crore. The suspension of sugar export and ethanol production has exacerbated the issue. Farmers demand prompt action, with payments expected by May 31.
Sugarcane growers who are suffering without income due to the suspension of agricultural activities are
now facing further financial hardship due to non-payment of sugarcane bills by sugar mills. The suspension of sugar export and production of ethanol by the central govt has hit the income of the factories. Sugar mills crushed sugarcane from October 2023 till the end of March 2024.
Sugarcane Farmers: Sugarcane farmers in distress as several mills delay payments Accordingly, the sugarcane bills must be paid within 14 days of delivery of sugarcane as per Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) rules. However, many factories have not paid their bills since December. Some factories
have retained last year’s cane balance. In the current season, 76 factories in the state have crushed sugarcane. In the season, a total of 5.8 crore tonnes of sugarcane has been crushed till April 30. A total
of 52.9 lakh metric tonnes of sugar was produced with a total recovery of 9%.
Three months have passed since the end of the sugarcane harvesting season and the mills still have outstanding bills of around Rs 1,500 crore. Out of 28 sugar mills in Belagavi district, 10 mills have outstanding cane bills of Rs 216 crore due to farmers as per FRP.
Most of the sugar mills have not paid the cane bill at the yield-based FRP rate fixed by the government. Rs 2,790 to Rs 3,000 per tonne on average in the first instalment. The management boards of the factories had assured back then that they would pay the outstanding bills in the second instalment.
However, from 2020 to date, no sugar factory has issued the due bill for the second and third instalments. It isalleged that some factories are not paying the first instalment adequately. There are complaints that sugar mills are cheating farmers of lakhs of rupees. The farmers complain that they have brought this to the attention of the district administration, sugar commissioner and the government, but to no avail.
The sugar mills at the forefront of cane bill arrears in Belagavi district are Hiranyakeshi Sugars, Satish Sugars, Someshwar Sugars, Vishwaraj Sugars, Belagavi Sugars, Athani Sugars, Malaprabha Sugars, Sangam Sugars, Markandeya Sugars and Ugar Sugars.
What farmers and officials say
Chunappa Pujeri, Somu Rainapur and Raghavendra Nayak, the farmer’s leaders said some factories have had arrears of cane bills since December and many factories have not even paid last year’s arrears. They demanded action against sugar mills who have not paid the cane bill.
Sugar commissioner P Ravikumar said that due to the suspension of sugar export and production of ethanol by the central government, problems faced by sugar factories have increased. It led to a delay in the payment of sugarcane bills. Many more factories have arrears of sugarcane bill payments. All outstanding sugarcane bills are expected to be paid by May 31.
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