Kangra: Sugarcane producers in the bordering area of the Indora Mand region in Kangra district have appealed to the Himachal Pradesh government for a bonus on sugarcane crops, similar to the practice in the state of Punjab, reported Amar Ujala.
Sugarcane farmers, including Multan Singh, Amerik Singh, Jaspal Singh, Surendra Pal, Shamsher Singh, Kuldeep Singh, Vikram Singh, Sanjeev Kumar, Suresh Kumar, Ranjit Singh, Amarjeet, and Hansraj, stated that due to the absence of sugar mills in Himachal Pradesh, farmers are compelled to sell sugarcane in Punjab.
Farmers in Punjab receive a sugarcane price of ₹391 per quintal, while farmers in Himachal Pradesh receive ₹335 per quintal. This results in a loss of approximately ₹55.50 per quintal for Himachal Pradesh farmers, translating to around ₹10,000 per trailer. Despite cultivating sugarcane on thousands of acres of land in Indora and Fatehpur, farmers in these regions do not benefit from any bonus facility provided by the Himachal Pradesh government. They have requested the government to consider granting a bonus to farmers on par with Punjab to alleviate their financial challenges.