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Haryana govt likely to increase sugarcane SAP
Even as crushing operations in some sugarmills have already started, the delay in fixing the state approved price (SAP) by the government has worried the farmers as, according to them, it will delay the disbursement of payments
: The Haryana government is planning to increase the prices of sugarcane and a proposal in this regard has been submitted to the chief minister’s office, a senior official of the agriculture department has said.
Even as crushing operations in some sugarmills have already started, the delay in fixing the state approved price (SAP) by the government has worried the farmers as, according to them, it will delay the disbursement of payments.
Hardeep Singh, director general, agriculture, said that a proposal to increase the sugarcane SAP has already been submitted to the chief minister’s office and a final decision is pending.
Haryana Cooperation Minister Banwari Lal, who inaugurated crushing operations at Kaithal’s Cooperative Sugarmill, has assured that the government was considering a hike in the sugarcane SAP and he will take up the issue with the chief minister.
Haryana is known for providing highest prices of sugarcane in the country, but after a hike of ₹ 20 per quintal by the Aam Aadmi Party-led government, now Punjab has the highest sugarcane SAP of ₹ 380 per quintal.
The officials associated with a committee which fixes sugarcane SAP said that the Haryana government is planning to increase the prices more than Punjab.
As per the officials earlier, the state government was not in favour of increasing the Sugarcane SAP claiming that it was already providing the highest ₹ 362 per quintal for early maturing varieties of sugarcane and ₹ 355 per quintal for late maturing varieties.
The decision to increase the Sugarcane SAP was not taken in the annual meeting of the Sugarcane Control Board held on September 7 as the sugarmills were not in favour of increasing the prices further.
“But after the Punjab government has increased the prices to ₹ 380, now the Haryana government has decided to increase the prices and fixing it to at least ₹ 1 more than Punjab,” said an official of the department.
Last year, the Haryana government announced a ₹ 12 hike in the SAP on September 10, fixing it ₹ 2 per quintal more than Punjab.
Farmer leaders in Haryana are demanding the government to increase the sugarcane SAP to ₹ 400 per quintal as they were expecting a yield loss of around 30 to 40 per cent due to pest attack on one of the major sugarcane varieties Cos 238.
“Sugarmills have started crushing operations but the government failed to announce the SAP for the Sugarcane. We Request the government to take the decision immediately and fix the Sugarcane SAP to ₹ 400 to help the farmers as the crop is under a severe pest attack,” said BKU (Tikait) Haryana president Ratan Mann.
According to the data of the state agriculture department, the state has around 90,000 hectares under sugarcane this year and the production is expected to remain around 70lakh MT as the high-yielding varieties are under severe attack of top-borer disease.
