Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday announced increasing
the price of sugarcane to Rs 380 per quintal from the existing Rs 360 per
quintal. He announced a hike in SAP (state agreed price) of sugarcane on the
floor of the Punjab Assembly on the concluding day of its brief session.
In August 2021, the then Congress government had announced a Rs 50
per quintal hike in SAP of sugarcane to Rs 360 per quintal.
Mann said farmers will get an additional Rs 20 per quintal under SAP of sugarcane as compared to last year.
With this decision, the state government will spend an additional Rs 200
crore annually to benefit the farmers.
Mann said the farmers of the state eagerly want to adopt sugarcane crop under
crop diversification, but they are hesitant for it due to lack of adequate price
and timely payment of the crop.
At present, sugarcane is cultivated on just 1.25 lakh hectares of land in Punjab,
while the total crushing capacity of sugar mills was around 2.50 lakh hectares.
This is why the state government has decided to enhance the price to
supplement the income of farmers, he said.
Informing the House about the present status of the payments, the chief
minister said the cooperative sugar mills have already paid the entire dues of
the farmers but two private sugar mills have not paid the dues yet.
He informed that the owners of these mills have from the country, adding
that the state government has already initiated the process to confiscate their
assets to pay the pending dues of the farmers. PTI
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