This is one sweet price for farmers, big hit for treasury

 

Belgaum: Did the Congress government announce a subsidy of Rs 150 per ton of sugarcane on Wednesday as a knee-jerk reaction to the farmer's suicide and against expert advice? The State government which has already doled out huge subisdies worth Rs 4,500 crore to the farming sector alone (including milk and power sops), has now pulled upon itself another Rs 300 crore burden.

 

According to highly placed sources in the government, the government arrived at a minimum support price of Rs 2,500 per ton after much deliberations and rounds of meeting with all stakeholders. But the decision to give additional Rs 150 on Wednesday was impulsive. While,the farmers are already getting a milk subsidy of Rs 496 crore, and power sops amount to RS 4,000 crore, this move has added another Rs 300 crore. 

 

"One acre can yield nearly 40 tonnes of sugarcane and fetch the farmer up to Rs one lakh, with a ton of sugarcane fetching the farmer Rs 2500. After discounting the cost of cultivation, he's left with a profit of Rs 30,000 per acre.  The government did not dilly dally in decision making, but it had to take both farmers and sugar factory owners into confidence and finally fixed it at Rs 2500. Now, can any government scale it up further owing to political pressure and protests?" asks a senior official. 

 

Karnataka's sugar politics is brewing a bitter pill for the small farmers to swallow. Vittal  Bhimappa Arabavi who committed suicide  represents nearly 30 per cent of the cane growers. The rest are big farmers with huge sugarcane fields who are mostly owners of sugar factories. The government's move  can bring little respite unless other issues are tackled, say experts. 

 

"The additional sop was to make the price useful to small farmers. However, the MSP alone will not resolve the crisis in future. Efforts to maximise yield and higher recovery of sugar is necessary to make farmers self reliant," suggests an expert.