Waking up to the dire straits of sugarcane growers and the difficulties faced by the domestic sugar producers in the country, the Union government is planning to come out with a “concrete package” for the sector in the near future.
According to sources, the Prime Minister Office — taking note of a detailed report published in this newspaper on May 5 (“Sugarcane farmers battle against bitter reality”), held an “exhaustive discussion” with the top officials of the Union food ministry on Tuesday and sought details on the existing government policies to boost the sector. It also wanted information from the ministry on incentives and other benefits given to sugarcane growers.
“Apart from the above, the Prime Minister Office also wanted to know the difficulties the domestic sugar producers are facing, especially due to the duty-free import of sugar in the name of giving relief to the consumers,” source in the food ministry informed.
The source added that the ministry was asked to submit a detail report on the entire gamut of problems faced by the sector and make suggestive recommendations that can be taken up for discussion at Cabinet level.
Several members of the Parliament had drawn the attention of the food ministry and Prime Minister Office to the plight of the farmers after the news was published.
The Age report highlighted how nearly seven crore sugarcane farmers and 6.5 lakh direct and 25 lakh indirect workers engaged in 651 sugar mills in country were in distraught state after the Union government removed import duty on sugar, forcing the Indian sugar industry withstand dumping of sugar by the foreign players at prices much lower than the cost of production in India.
The farmers apprehend that the domestic sugar producers might stop cane crushing as they cannot continue for long to fight against the import of sugar.
The imported sugar is now available in the Indian market at Rs 2,400 per quintal. This has forced the Indian mill owners to sell their sugar at Rs 25 per kg, Rs 7 less than the production cost.