A bittersweet Deepavali for TN's sugarcane farmers
Urging the government to disburse funds before the festival as the farmers had been waiting for more than eight months, they demanded the State release the Government Order (GO) first, which will provide hope to farmers and their families.
Farmers in a sugarcane field at Lalgudi in Tiruchy
TIRUCHY: Will this Deepavali bring contentment to around one lakh sugarcane farmers across Tamil Nadu? It remains to be seen as the State is yet to take a call on releasing funds for the incentive that was announced to farmers on Saturday.
Urging the government to disburse funds before the festival as the farmers had been waiting for more than eight months, they demanded the State release the Government Order (GO) first, which will provide hope to farmers and their families.
As the sugarcane farmers across the country have been protesting for the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) of Rs 4,000 per tonne, the union government recently approved the FRP of sugarcane for Sugar Season 2023-24 (from October 1 to September 30) at Rs 3,150 per tonne with a basic recovery rate of 10.25% while the FRP for the recovery rate below 9.5% has been fixed at Rs 2,919 per tonne.
Explaining the recovery rate, N Veerasekaran, the State Secretary of Bharatiya Kisan Sangam said, “It is to be noted that only in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Chhattisgarh, the recovery rate of sugarcane stands between 10.25 and 12% whereas in Tamil Nadu the average recovery rate is just 9.5% though the origin of sugarcane in India is Tamil Nadu, particularly Mettupalayam. The All-India Sugarcane Institute in Coimbatore is a testimony to this.”
Pointing out that the State incentive for TN farmers is too low, he said that the farmers would opt for a change in the crop pattern if the government doesn’t release the fund alongside the FRP released by the Centre. “In the past, in Tamil Nadu, sugarcane was cultivated in an area of 15 lakh acres and gradually declined to 10 lakh acres. At present, it is hardly 5 lakh acres which highlights the meagre support from the government to the farmers,” Veerasekaran added.
Besides the central government’s FRP, all the state governments have been releasing funds to sugarcane farmers. However, in Tamil Nadu, for around the past ten years, the previous governments stopped the state-recommended funds to the sugarcane farmers and introduced a special incentive amount that has been released since 2015.
This special incentive used to be announced in the State budget every year and is mandatory to release the funds immediately. However, the government takes more than six months to release funds, which doesn’t benefit the farmers in any way.
Meanwhile, the state government during the budget session in the month of February announced a special incentive of Rs 215 per tonne of sugarcane. However, the GO for the announcement has not yet been released and the early release of GO would pave the way for the disbursal of incentive. Speaking on the same, Swamimalai Sundara Vimalnathan, the secretary of the Tamil Nadu Cauvery Farmers Association said, “The unusual delay in releasing the GO would affect the release of funds thereby resulting in aversion among farmers towards sugarcane cultivation.”
Highlighting that the sugarcane farmers have been demanding the state government to fix Rs 4,000 per tonne of sugarcane as promised by Chief Minister MK Stalin in the election manifesto, he urged the State to release the incentive along with the FRP. “The farmers have been waiting for more than eight months for the state government’s incentive, but the fund has not been released to date and we expect it to be disbursed to the farmers before Deepavali,” Vimalnathan said.
According to Sugarcane Farmers Association Secretary P Govindaraj, the union government has been releasing the FRP immediately after the canes are sent to the mills but the State fails to release the incentive. The farmers will benefit only when both FRP and incentives are received together, he added.
Govindaraj further noted that the cultivation acreage has declined in the state due to the delay in the release of funds. “For instance, Kurungulam Arignar Anna Sugar mill used to undertake crushing activities of around 6 lakh tonnes earlier, but now, the mill gets less than 1.9 lakh tonnes of sugarcane for crushing and the same condition prevails across the state,” Govindaraj said adding that the state government should immediately release a GO about the incentive and ensure prompt disbursal of the incentive so that this Deepavali turns out to be a memorable one for the farmers.