Sugarcane farmers urge Govt to provide transportation charges

Sugarcane farmers from jagtial are urging the state government to cover transportation costs as they move crops 150 km to a private factory in kamareddy, spending nearly ₹3 crore on logistics.

Jagityal: Sugarcane farmers urged the state government to reimburse the charges for transportation of crop to the sugar factory.

Farmers, who used to supply sugarcane to Nizam Deccan Sugars Limited, Mutyampet of Mallapur mandal, are now transporting the crop to a private sugar factory in Kamareddy district after the closure of Mutyampet unit in 2015.

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Though the state government had promised to reopen the unit by the time of this year’s crushing season (December), no initiative was taken up in that direction. So, farmers are now forced to transport the crop to Kamareddy this year too.

Since it is located 150 kilometers away, farmers have to spend Rs 500 for the transportation of a tonne of sugarcane. So, ryots have to spend Rs 3 crore on transportation.

All three units including Mutyampet, Shakkarnagar of Bodhan, Munjojupalli of Medak of Nizam Deccan Sugars Limited were closed after a lay-off was announced on December 23, 2015.

As a result, cultivation area under Mutyampet unit limits has come down to 1,500 acres as against 10,000 acres earlier.

When the factory was operational, farmers used to get incentives on seed, fertilizer, crop cutting and transportation. Instead of providing incentives, the private factory management was imposing conditions to farmers from the district.

Though a majority of the farmers have shifted to other crops especially paddy after the closure of Mutyampet unit, a few of them are continuing the crop despite not getting a remunerative price for the crop.

About 40 tonnes of crop is being produced in an acre of land. The market price of a tonne of sugarcane is Rs 3,470.  Besides other expenses, farmers have to spend Rs 860 for the cutting of crop in an acre and Rs 500 for transportation.

About 60,000 tonnes of sugarcane is being produced since the crop is sown in 1,500 acres. It requires about Rs 3 crore as Rs 500 is being charged for transportation of a tonne of sugarcane.

So, farmers wanted the state government to reduce the burden on them by providing transportation charges. In this regard, some of the farmers explained their troubles to IT and Industries Minister D Sridhar Babu when he visited Jagtial recently.

Responding positively, the Minister assured to solve their problem by bringing the issue to the notice of the government.