New Delhi: All India NCP President Sharad Pawar with Tariq Anwar, Praful Patel and other NCP leaders at the 19th NCP Foundation Day celebration in New Delhi on Saturday.Express Photograph by Tashi Tobgyal New Delhi 100617 *** Local Caption *** New Delhi: All India NCP President Sharad Pawar with Tariq Anwar, Praful Patel and other NCP leaders at the 19th NCP Foundation Day celebration in New Delhi on Saturday.Express Photograph by Tashi Tobgyal New Delhi 1006
To tackle the problem of sugar surplus, the government should boost export and provide subsidies to cope with price difference between domestic and international markets, NCP president Sharad Pawar said Friday. The former Union agriculture minister convened a meeting of sugar producers in Mumbai. A decision to constitute a committee of sugar experts and seek centre’s intervention to help cane farmers and sugar mills were discussed. Pawar said surplus sugar production necessitates exploring the markets internationally.
“The government should initiate measures to facilitate export of sugar. The price difference between domestic market in India and international markets which works to Rs 8 should be subsidised to sugar producers.” He advocated 30-35 lakh tonne export of sugar to bring stability in sugar price and prevent it from crashing down. Mentioning sugar production would be 308 lakh tonne, he said sugar carried forward from the previous year is 42 lakh tonne. Domestic sale would account for 250 lakh tonne while additional sugar would be 100 lakh tonne, he said. The real concern, he added, is to find a market for 100 lakh tonne.
The NCP leader said a buffer stock of sugar was not a solution as the price mechanism works on laws of demand and supply. When there is buffer stock, sugar cannot fetch good price, he said. While sugar production in Uttar Pradesh is 109 lakh tonne, in Maharashtra it is 106.77 lakh tonne. This compared to the previous year’s 40 lakh tonne is almost 2.54 times more and 94.77 lakh tonne sugar will have to be exported or routed for industrial use, he said.
Urging sugar mills to equip themselves with cogeneration plants and ethanol plants to optimise use of surplus sugarcane, Pawar said, “The farmers are going to cultivate sugarcane whenever there is water availability as sugarcane is the only cash crop which provides assured minimum support price unlike any other crop.”