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Sugarcane loses its sweet BY OUR CORRESPONDENT Biratnagar, April 17: Farmers in several parts of eastern Tarai are turning away from sugarcane farming after they have failed to get incentives and encouragement from the sugar mills. Till four years ago farmers preferred sugarcane to other crops such paddy and wheat, but majority of farmers now think they would rather go for any other crop but sugarcane, said Jwala Prasad Pokharel, chairman of the Sunsari Sugarcane Producers Association. While more than 2,000 farmers used to plant in the previous years, this year, not more than 500 farmers have gone for sugarcane farmers, he said. "The main reason is the dominating attitude of the sugar mills." Pokharel also pointed out that the farmers have been agitating since the last three years to increase the price of sugarcane, but only the price of sugar increases and not of the raw material. The gate price of sugar is Rs. 136 per quintal and that of the collection centre is Rs. 126 per quintal. The farmers are demanding for Rs. 164 per quintal as gate price and Rs. 156 as the collection centre price. A sugarcane farmer Narayan Karki said besides price, non-payment of the sugarcane in time is another problem, which has discouraged the farmers from sugarcane farming. He said the regulation says the payment should be made within one month, but the mills take several months to make the payment. According to data, the Eastern Sugar Mills, the only sugar mills in the eastern Terai had last year collected 1.8 million quintals of sugarcane from the farmers of Morang and Sunsari. But this year the mills could collect only 600,000 quintals of because of the decrease in the plantation of sugarcane by the farmers. Director at the Mills Dinesh Kumar Golchha also accepted that farmers have been turning away from sugarcane farming. But he denies the charges made by the farmers. He said the sugar mills has done everything possible to encourage the farmers towards sugarcane and the rise in the price of sugarcane has been at par with the increase in the price of sugar. Regarding the payment of sugarcane, he said the problems lies with that the payments could be made only after the sugar are sold, but he said his Mills is making all efforts to pay the farmers within one month. Other Stories |
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