The Hindu Business Line : Meet to discuss problems of sugarcane farmers

The Consortium of Indian Farmers Association (CIFA) will organise a two-day conference in Mysore later this month to discuss the problems faced by the sugarcane farmers in the South.

The meeting, slated to be held on May 22 and 23, will also have representatives from the South Indian Sugar Mills Association, scientists and policy makers.

"The meeting will discuss sharing of profits of the sugar mills made on the sales of sugar and its by-products," Mr K Prabhakar Reddy, Convener (Sugar Commodity Committee) of CIFA, said.

Addressing a press conference here on Monday, he said the meet would also discuss co-generation of power, ethanol production and import and export policies.

Appeal to AP Govt

Mr Reddy appealed to the Andhra Pradesh Government to follow the Supreme Court directive with regard to fixation of State Advisory Price for sugarcane farmers. He demanded that the price be fixed at Rs 1,400 a tonne against the current Rs 1,050.

Citing the decisions made by some States like Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, he said AP had an incidental power to fix the price over and above the minimum price fixed by the Central Government. "We have made several representations to the State Government. But we did not get any positive response on that," he said.

Stating that there was no government agency to take care of issues related to the sugarcane farmers, Mr Reddy demanded that a directorate be set up to address their problems.