Sugarcane farmers want higher price

RSS

BIRATNAGAR: Sugarcane farmers here have been left stranded after the Nepal Sugar Producers association fixed the price of sugarcane for this year at Rs. 125 per quintal, Rs. 20 less than the earlier price.

Ironically, the Morang/Sunsari sugarcane farmers had been demanding since the past two months for a minimum price of Rs. 145 per quintal.

The actual cost of production excluding cutting and transportation falls at around Rs. 125 per quintal so selling sugarcane for the same price could put an additional economic burden on the farmers, it is stated.

There are 4,500 sugarcane farmers in Morang and Sunsari district and this year sugarcane has been cultivated in some 3000 bigaha of land.

Ahayahari Sharma, a sugarcane farmer since the past 60 years says the minimum price of sugarcane should be Rs. 160 per quintal. He is also the general secretary of the association.

Last year the two districts produced 700,000 quintal of sugarcane while the production this year is expected to rise to around 1,000,000 quintal, says the association.

Meanwhile, the association has decided to run various programmes in protest of the price decline.

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