How friendly and concerned are the govts of the day in India to farmers? Here is a proof. Indian sugar mills have run up a whopping more than thirty trillion ($4.38 billion) in arrears to over 50 million cane farmers, who have gone unpaid for their produce for more than a year.Of the $4.38 billion unpaid dues, mills in Uttar Pradesh owe 108 billion rupees to the cane growers.
UP is country largest cane growing state. Besides UP, the unpaid dues have affected the cane growers in key cane-producing states of Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, Bihar and Karnataka. The unpaid due is the prime reason behind farmers' suicide. The situation is so alarming that three to four farmers commit suicide in Karnataka every day.More than 200 sugarcane farmers committed suicide in Karnataka in just two month n 2015.
Over 30 million farmers and 10 million labourers are engaged in the sugarcane production in India.The total acreage under sugarcane in the country was estimated to be around 54.35 lakh hectares in 2018-19, about 8 per cent higher than 2017-18 sugar season. More than Rs 90,000 crore has been invested by banks, other financial institutions and individuals in this sector. But even after such a huge investment, farmers have been reeling under debt for not receiving payments from the factories in time.
NCP leader and former agriculture minister, Sharad Pawar had recently pointed in a letter to PM Modi that sugarcane growers in the country are committing suicide due to "financial desperation". He wanted immediate steps to prevent any "mass-scale revolt" by farmers. The "unrest and depression" among small and marginal cane growers should be a big concern to the govt.
Tragedy is that while our farmers toil hard for growing bumper crops, but most of the time they get cheated. The plight of Indian cane growers is a case in point. Years of bumper harvests and record sugar production have only hammered the growers as domestic prices fall and hit sugar mills’ financial health. The situation is now so grave that monies owed to farmers have ballooned to an all-time high.
Despite farmers forming an influential voting bloc, Modi’s government has not done enough to help cane growers to get their unpaid dues . Modi ad publicly promised farmers to help them get their payments within 15 days of selling their produce to sugar mills,” Despite the promise, government has done little to ensure timely payments.
Most of the Indian cane growers are barely able to scrape through. Is not it unfortunate that neither the state governments nor the union govt have done anything.