CM Yogi Announces Hike in Sugarcane Prices by Rs 25 per Quintal

CM Yogi Adityanath announced a hike in sugarcane prices for farmers and stated that the move would lead to a rise in the income of the agrarian community by around 8%. 

Yogi’s Decisions: 

Yogi has announced Rs 25 per quintal hike in the purchase of sugarcane in the state. Addressing a meeting of farmers organized by the BJP’s Kisan Morcha, Adityanath said, “The government has decided that variety of sugarcane for which Rs 325 per quintal was paid to the farmers, this price has been raised to Rs 350, which will be paid to the farmers.”  

UP Government has also decided to increase the price of ordinary sugarcane variety, to Rs 340 (per Quintal) up from Rs 315 (per quintal).  

Yogi Adiyanath said, “This will enable the farmers to increase their income by 8% and around 45 lakh farmers will be benefitted from this decision”. He also said that 119 sugar mills will be operated and they will be linked with ethanol. 

Yogi highlighted that during the Covid Pandemic, the sugar industry came to a grinding halt in Brazil which is the biggest sugar producer in the world. More than half of the sugar mills in Maharashtra & some in Karnataka were also closed down but UP Govt ran all 119 mills.  

Cane Politics 

Farmers have been protesting in parts of western UP against the three new farm laws introduced by center & Sugarcane FRP issues. This has threatened BJP’s Vote calculus ahead of the 2022 assembly elections. Therefore, in an attempt, to win the trust of farmers again, CM Yogi has taken this decision.  

BJP has also sought to distinguish between the “Real farmers & the ones agitating for political reasons”.  

“Theirs is not a farmer’s agitation, it’s a political agitation” said state’s deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya while referring to the ongoing agitation demanding rollback of the centre’s three farm reform laws.