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CIFA prepares demand charter for India’s ‘neglected’ sugarcane farmers
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Tuesday, 22 April, 2014, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Our Bureau, New Delhi
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fiogf49gjkf0d The Consortium of Indian Farmers Associations (CIFA) - which opined that the country’s cane farmers have been neglected by the parties in power - has emerged their voice and prepared a charter of demands, because their issues have neither been highlighted nor resolved.
The body, which stated that its implementation would be beneficial to the cane farmers, the sugar sector, the consumers and India as a whole, urged the parties to include it in their manifestos for the 16th Lok Sabha election (currently underway), and pledged that it would follow it up even after the election.
CIFA and the sugar industry played a key role in sugar de-control, which it felt would benefit cane farmers (who are mainly from Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, and cultivate several lakh hectare land), the sector and consumers.
Long-term sugar export policy
CIFA felt that there is a need for a long-term stable policy on sugar exports, which could then merely be market-based and not policy-dependent. A long-term and a stable sugar export policy would ensure an alternative market to the surplus sugar in case domestic markets remained unremunerative and there was surplus stock.
It stated that in the absence of any long-term policy on sugar exports, the country would not able to tap the international markets, which, if allowed, would give mills the extra liquidity and cash to pay the remunerative cane price to the farmers on time.
The consortium added that sugarcane and sugar production has been quite encouraging in the last few years. In fact the sugar production in the country has been outstripping the total annual demand of sugar for the past four consecutive sugar years, including the current one.
The next sugar season is also expected to be a surplus year. This means that the country has surplus sugar and one of the highest-ever sugar balances. CIFA felt that this should be fully utilised to prepare a long-term sugar export policy.
This would help India develop an export market for itself and emerge as a key player in the global sugar market. Since with better cash flows, the sugar industry would be able to make timely payments to the farmers, the problem of cane arrears would be addressed.
Subsidise agriculture machinery
The shortage of agricultural labour post-Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is a fact. There is an acute shortage of labour to do various types of agricultural work, including planting, weeding and harvesting.
Therefore, the government must provide the farmers or the agri-based industry, a subsidy on buying agricultural machinery, which would otherwise be very expensive for the farmers to afford.
CIFA demanded that agriculture machinery, including transplantors and harvestors, be given at 50 per cent subsidy and loans at four per cent interest. It urged the government to realise that agricultural machines are seasonal, and therefore, it is difficult for the investors to pay 12 months’ interest and also make investments.
Incentive on drip irrigation
Drip irrigation, though capital-intensive, is the most efficient irrigation system in effectively utilising water, which is extremely scarce in the country.
Two years back, drought hit Maharashtra and Karnataka, two important cane-growing states, leading to a drop in cane production.
It was the farmers who invested in ground-water usage who increased the cultivable area from 17 million hectare to 37 million hectare between 1999 and 2014.
All these farmers require drip irrigation, sprinkler irrigation, pipes, motors, solar energy, and diesel engines JO conserve water. The most important is installing drip and sprinkler irrigation, for which CIFA demanded 90 per cent subsidy.
The consortium demanded that every year, Rs 5,000 crore be allotted for drip, for which adequate encouragement was needed.
A Kisan Jago campaign would be organised by CIFA soon, to interact with the farmers and Spread awareness about the demands put forth by the farmers’ associations to the political parties.
The price of ethanol should equal that of petrol
The government of India made it mandatory to blend five per cent ethanol with petrol. The Ethanol Blending Programme would save foreign exchange by substituting petrol to an equivalent level, and will also reduce environmental pollution.
However, to safeguard the interests of the cane farmers, the government should link the price of ethanol to the price of petrol, so that oil marketing companies are financially neutral towards the blending programme, but are yet under compulsion to blend five per cent ethanol will petrol.
The Ethanol Blending Programme is an important policy decision of the government, and every effort should be made to ensure its smooth run and successful implementation.
Since this is an important by-product of sugarcane, the farmers would directly benefit from the programme.
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