Connecting chords with an outspoken approach, PM Modi credits a significant boost of income to sugarcane farmers

NewsBharati    30-Jun-2018
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New Delhi, June 30: Friendly as he is, the expressions he exclaims and communication with the people is how Prime Minister Narendra Modi wins million hearts. A ground-level interaction to understand the needs and requirements of the people, PM Modi this time interacted with the farmers. The candid meeting with farmers credited on to notify a significant boost in their income.

The interaction with 140 sugarcane farmers at Lok Kalyan Marg in New Delhi was from Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Maharashtra, and Karnataka. During the interaction, the Prime Minister announced that the Union Cabinet would approve the implementation of Minimum Support Price of 150% of the input cost, for the notified crops of Kharif season 2018-19 in the forthcoming meeting.

Apart from this the Prime Minister also announced that the cabinet will also announce the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) for sugarcane for the year 2018-19. Assuring to provide the incentive for those farmers whose recovery from sugarcane will be higher than 9.5%, PM Modi asserted that the FRP will be higher than the last year 2017-18.

 

The Prime Minister urged the farmers to use sprinkler and drip irrigation, latest farming techniques, and solar pumps. He also asked the farmers to install solar panels in their farms as a source of power, as well as additional income. Calling for emphasis on value addition of crops, PM Modi also urged them to use farm waste sensibly so as to make it a source of nutrients and for additional income. He exhorted farmers to aim for up to 10% reduction in chemical fertilizers by 2022.

 

The Prime Minister described farmers of his recent interactions with corporates, where he has called for greater private sector investment for value addition, warehousing, storage facilities, better quality seeds, and market linkages for improving farmer’s income. PM Modi also apprised the farmers for their various ways of liquidating the arrears of the sugarcane farmers.

PM Modi assured the farmers that the state governments have been requested to take effective measures for the liquidation of cane arrears. The Prime Minister was impressed on how in the last seven to ten days itself, more than Rs. 4000 crore of arrears has been given to the farmers as a result of new policy measures enforced.

 

During the course of the interaction, the Prime Minister also recalled the earlier interventions made by the Union Government in 2014-15 and 2015-16, to ease the burden of sugarcane farmers, who were struggling under a huge amount of arrears of more than Rs. 21,000 crore. This payment was ensured through sugar mills to farmers.

The farmers thanked the Prime Minister and appreciated the various steps taken by the Union Government in the recent past, including an increase in import duty on sugar from 50% to 100%, and provision of Rs. 5.50 per quintal as the performance-based grant to sugar mills for payments to farmers, amounting to Rs. 1540 crore. Farmers also took note of Union Government’s intervention to the tune of Rs. 1175 crore as interest subvention support for 30 lakh metric tonnes of buffer stock by mills, to enable payment to farmers.

Lastly, the Prime Minister elaborated on the Government’s approach for 10% merger of ethanol in petrol, as a long-term solution for providing stability in the sugar industry.