Sugar mills in Maharashtra have paid 97 per cent Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) to farmers this year after the completion of the crushing season. Mills paid an FRP of ₹13,149.56 crore while dues worth ₹358.66 crore are pending this season.

The data released by the Sugar Commissioner Office states that 144 sugar mills crushed 550.13 tonnes of sugarcane. Mills had to pay ₹13,508.22 crore as FRP to farmers, of which 97 per cent was paid by June 15. About 107 sugar mills have paid 100 per cent FRP.

Compared to 73 sugar mills that received Revenue Recovery Certificate (RRC) last season, no sugar mill was slapped with the notice this year. Last year, 195 mills had crushed 952.11 tonnes cane and had paid ₹21,931 crore in FRP. FRP arrears for last year are worth ₹1,170.79 crore.

In order to protect the interest of farmers and encourage them to cultivate sugarcane, the government fixes the FRP for every season well in advance, which is a benchmark price below which no sugar mill can purchase cane from farmers. Besides, FRP is linked to a basic recovery rate, with a premium payable to farmers for higher recoveries of sugar from cane.

Meanwhile, according to the Indian Sugar Mill Association (ISMA) Maharashtra’s net cane area has gone up by about 43 per cent in 2020-21, which is mainly due to above-normal monsoon in 2019, followed by normal rainfall from January to March 2020. As against the net cane area of 7.76 lakh hectares in 2019-20, the area is expected to increase to 11.12 lakh hectares in 2020-21.

“Based on the satellite images procured in the latter part of June 2020, the total acreage under sugarcane in the country is estimated to be around 52.28 lakh hectares in 2020-21, which is about 8 per cent higher than the 2019-20 sugar season’s cane area of around 48.41 lakh hectares,” said the ISMA statement.

comment COMMENT NOW