Delay in setting sugarcane support price forces farmers to sell cheap

With the government yet to set the sugarcane support price, sugarcane farmers have been forced to sell their crop to khadsari (jaggery) mills at last year's rate.

Demand for sakkhar (unrefined sugar/jaggery) has risen for Chhath offerings, prompting khadsari mills to start crushing sugarcane. Although sugarcane is a cash crop, farmers have not been able to profit according to their costs because of the unresolved price.

According to Ashok Yadav, chair of the Sugarcane Growers Association, farming costs have nearly doubled this year. He said fuel prices have risen about 1.5 times, while the cost of fertilizer and plowing has roughly doubled.

Seed, irrigation, wage labor, and the cost of transporting sugarcane to mills have also become more expensive. Farmer representatives have demanded that this year's sugarcane price be double last year's.

Farmer leader Kameshwar Sahani said that although a government team has finished its study for setting the price, no decision has been made.

According to Rajan Thakur, a farmer from Gadhimai Municipality-4 in Parsa, sakkhar is selling in the market for about NPR 120 per kg. He said farmers are selling cheap because of the risk of sugarcane drying up in the fields and the need to plant pulse and oilseed crops next.

Another farmer, Santosh Patel, said he had to sell standing sugarcane for about NPR 500 per quintal. He said he made this decision because there is no certainty that the mills will keep running regularly.