Govt Announces Additional Subsidy for Delayed Sugarcane Crushing

As the state's bumper sugarcane production delays crop crushing in sugar mills and unsettles farmers, the Maharashtra government announced on Tuesday a Rs 200 per tonne additional subsidy for cane crushed after May 1.

"This will cost the state treasury Rs 100 crore. From May 1 to the end of the season, the state expects to crush 52 lakh tonnes of cane. Furthermore, after May 1, cane that travels more than 50 kilometres to reach sugar mills will receive a Rs 5 per tonne per kilometre subsidy," said State Cooperation Minister Balasaheb Patil.

The meeting was presided over by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who stated that the mills will remain operational until all cane has been crushed.

With a bumper sugarcane crop in 2021-22, Maharashtra is looking at 19.52 lakh tonne of uncrushed cane as the crushing season comes to an end for more than half of the state's sugar mills, both co-operative and private.

In 2021-22, the state added 2.25 lakh hectares of sugarcane area compared to 2020-21, with a total sugarcane availability of 1,320 lakh tonnes. According to a presentation made in front of Thackeray, the total turnover of the sugar industry in the state has reached Rs 1 lakh crore in the fiscal year 2021-22. Approximately Rs 42,000 crore was spent on Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP).

The FRP is a government-mandated price that sugar mills must pay farmers for sugarcane procurement. The presentation also stated that the state's sugar export revenue reached Rs 3,500 crore last year.

Namdev Jadhav, a sugarcane farmer from Maharashtra's Beed district, committed suicide last week after his standing crop was not crushed by the mill due to bumper production this year. Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar then appealed to farmers not to take such drastic measures because the State government was working on a solution.