KATHMANDU, Dec 29: The government has failed to fix the minimum support price of sugarcane despite the harvesting season of the farm product reaching its end for this year.

Kapil Muni Mainali, president of Nepal Sugarcane Producers’ Federation, said sugarcane crushing began a month ago, but the government has not done its job yet. This has left the farmers dismayed.” Mainali said.

In Nepal, the harvesting season of sugarcane normally starts in November. Delay in the declaration of the minimum support price that coincides with the harvesting period poses the risk of postharvest loss of sugarcane as farmers are compelled to sell their final products at lower prices. 

Last year, the government fixed the minimum support price of sugarcane at Rs 544.33 per quintal in the first week of December, which was just Rs 12 per quintal more than the price of the previous year. The floor price could not please the farmers.

Farmers have been demanding the government to fix the sugarcane price at a minimum of Rs 680 per quintal for this season. Instead, the government has turned apathy to fix the floor price as of now.

At a time when the farmers have already been suffering from a delay in payment by the sugar mills, the government’s slow move to fix the minimum support price is likely to hit farmers further. According to sugarcane farmers, they are yet to receive Rs 126.40 million in outstanding dues of previous years from five sugar mills.

“As their produce has started to dry up at the farm, the farmers have been compelled to cut and sell their products to sugar mills at lower prices,” said Mainali. He raised his concern that the government’s slow move has made many farmers already abandon sugarcane production and switch to alternative jobs.

 
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