Total arrears to sugarcane farmers have dropped to around ₹5,000 crore with nearly 98 per cent of the dues of the last five seasons being cleared by the mills following various measures taken by the Union government, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.

In a written reply, Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, said sugarcane dues to farmers stood at ₹65 crore for the 2016-17 season, ₹135 crore for 2017-18, ₹365 crore for 2018-19, ₹130 crore for 2019-20 and ₹4,445 crore for the 2020-21 season (as on December 6).

Stating that the payment of cane price to sugarcane growing farmers by the sugar mills is a continuous process, she said the cane price payable to sugarcane farmers was ₹55,340 crore in the 2016-17 season, ₹83,629 crore in 2017-18, ₹86,617 crore in 2018-19, ₹75,907 crore in 2019-20 and ₹92,881 crore in the 2020-21 season, on all-India basis.

There has been no major delay in payment to sugarcane farmers, which totals ₹5,140 crore. The arrears are nominal and declining, the minister said.

Highlighting the measures taken by the Centre to facilitate the prompt clearance of cane dues of farmers by sugar mills, the Minister said various interventions have been taken from time to time. These included measures such as the diversion of excess sugar to ethanol, provision of assistance to sugar mills to offset the cost of cane, fixation of minimum selling price of sugar, financial assistance to sugar mills for maintenance of buffer stocks, and financial assistance to facilitate export of sugar, and soft loans to sugar mills.

“As a result of these measures, more than 98 per cent of sugarcane dues payable has been paid during the last five years,” the minister said.

Cane crushing started late in some States during the current sugar season that began on October 1 due to the late retreat of monsoon, she said.

The drop in the arrears to the current level is against over ₹22,000 crore dues pending in June last year. Then, the late Ram Vilas Paswan, who was the Union Minister of Food, asked mills to clear them quickly.

The sharp fall in arrears is also a sign of the sugar industry doing well. During the last two seasons, 13.05 million tonnes (mt) of sugar have been export with a record 7.1 mt being shipped out last year.

Both the seasons, sugar exports were helped by financial assistance provided by the Centre to the tune of ₹10,000 crore (₹6,500 in 2019-20 and the rest last season). This season, Indian exporters have signed deals to export 3.3 mt of sugar so far without any government support as global prices have surged on supply shortage and low production.

In addition, the Centre has encouraged sugar mills to go in for production of ethanol with at least three lakh tonnes of sugar being converted to ethanol. Earlier this week, the Government told the Lok Sabha that sugar mills had earned ₹35,000 crore from ethanol sales over the last four seasons.

These measures have injected the much-required liquidity in the industry, resulting in sugarcane arrears being cleared. The drop in arrears is also politically significant for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Uttar Pradesh, the country’s number one sugar producer.

Palm oil output

In a separate answer to a question on the production of palm oil in the country, Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, said that crude palm oil (CPO) production in the country increased to 2.88 lakh tonnes (lt) in 2020-21 as against 2.54 lt in 2019-20.

Andhra Pradesh contributed a major share of 2.40 lt in 2020-21 to the total CPO production in the country, followed by Telangana at 39347 tonnes.

To another separate query on the percentage of land owned by female farmers in the country, Tomar quoted the Agriculture Census of 2015-16, and said that 11.72 per cent of the total operated area in the country was operated by female operational holders. According to the Agriculture Census of 2015-16, there were 2.04 crore female operational holders in the country.

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