Kathmandu, Nepal: Sugarcane farmers are upset over the government’s prolonged delay in disbursing cash subsidies, a delay that comes at a time as the festival season rapidly approaches, reported Kathmandu Post.
The government has promised to pay sugarcane growers a cash subsidy of Rs70 per quintal, but they say they haven’t received their money for the last seven months.
The floor price for sugarcane has been fixed at Rs610 per quintal, representing the minimum sum that sugar mills must pay to the farmers for their yields. From this amount, the government contributes Rs70. This cash subsidy scheme was introduced in 2018 after farmers had lodged complaints that the compensation they received from mill owners failed to cover their operational expenses.
Previous year Indu Shankar sugar mill procured 2.82 million quintals from 10,678 farmers, Mahalaxmi sugar mill obtained 1.095 million quintals from 17,030 farmers, and Annapurna sugar mill procured 0.2 million quintals from 1,378 farmers. Consequently, the government’s subsidy on the total of 4.17 million quintals of sugarcane purchased by these mills amounted to Rs292.5 million.
