Sugar factories in Belagavi district, which faced devastating floods recently, are now grappling with an unprecedented sugarcane scarcity.
According to preliminary measures, water that inundated fields across the district for nearly two weeks in August has destroyed sugarcane crop on 1.15 lakh hectares. This is nearly 45% of the total sugarcane crop that stands on 2.5 lakh hectares in the district. Crop loss has been fairly widespread, but losses in farms along the banks of river Krishna in taluks such as Chikkodi, Athani, Kagwad and Raibag have been the most debilitating.
As a result, the district, which routinely produces 1,85,32,890 tonnes of sugarcane every year, will end up harvesting only around 1 crore tonnes of the sweet grass. The shortfall is estimated to be around 85 lakh tonnes. The damage is so severe that the crop can only be used as compost, said officials. “Of the 24 sugar factories in the district, three are defunct. Since a factory crushes an average of 5 lakh tonnes, the 21 factories need 1.1 crore tonnes of sugarcane. Crushing season is beginning and the factories will be left hankering for raw material,” a senior official said.
“Older and established factories, which have shareholding farmers as loyal customers, will be able to get an assured supply of cane as they may pay upfront or send cutting teams to their fields readily. But weaker units that have outstanding dues, and those whose field offices are not able to assure farmers of cutting and transporting, will suffer,” the official said. “Between 2010 and 2016, sugarcane production in the district peaked at 2 crore tonnes. Factories produced around 20 lakh tonnes of sugar from this. But in the past three years, the yields have been low. This year has been so bad that we have no data to compare the losses.”
Promise of payment
Some factories are trying to face the problem of scarcity bravely. The Gokak-based Bhagyalakshmi sugar factory has offered to pay ₹2,200 for a tonne of sugarcane, even before the State government’s announcement of Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP).
Farmers say their problems are multi-fold. “We need to protect whatever is left of the existing crop, rather than fret over the damaged crop. After that, we need to approach the nearest factory for cutting and transport, as [the produce] can not be sent to faraway factories,” said farmers’ leader Siddagouda Motagi.
Added to this is the problem of dues. When the last crushing season ended, factories in Belagavi owed farmers around ₹176 crore, according to government records. Farmers maintain, however, that the dues are over ₹400 crore. “Our oldest pending demand is to raise base payment and link the next slabs to incremental increases in sugar yields. Sadly, successive governments have neglected this demand,” said Kurbur Shanthakumar, president of the State Sugarcane Growers’ Association. “Our demand is that the government revise the base recovery as 8.5% and fix an FRP of ₹2,750 a tonne. It should increase by one base point of ₹275 for every 1% in the yield.”