Mahottari, Nepal: Farmers in the district are turning away from cultivating sugarcane owing to the delay in cane payments. The district had earlier witnessed sugarcane grown over hundreds of bigha land but due to the delay in receiving cane bills, the cane growers suffer from the financial crisis.
Naresh Singh Kushwaha, chairperson, Sugarcane Producing Farmers’ Association, Mahottari, said, the sugarcane farmers are quitting cane cultivation as there is lack of technical support for cane cultivation, nonpayment of cane dues and the obstacles in fixing cane prices. Twenty years ago the area under cane cultivation, one of the major cash crops, was 18,000 bighas which have been reduced to 6,500 bighas now.
“We are discontinuing cane cultivation as the mills are not paying the bills on time and the government is not fixing the price of sugarcane crop,” he said.
