by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Mumbai : After the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party, a Maharashtra farm panel has castigated Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh for his recent ‘anti-farmer jibe’ here on Monday.
Vasantrao Naik Sheti Swavalamban Mission (VNSSM) Chairman Kishore Tiwari termed the Central Minister’s remarks — that the ongoing farmers agitation in the country was “a media stunt” — as “unfortunate and rubbing salt on the wounds of the dying agrarian community”.
“Instead of making such statements, the Union Minister should immediately look into the status of the government’s agrarian programmes and resolve the farmers’ distress,” he said.
He called upon Singh to urgently intervene as the bureaucrats — responsible for implementing the Prime Minster’s flagship programmes on credit flow, crop pattern shifting to national demands, input and output cost regulations, etc — have failed to perform, resulting in the latest farmers protest.
Tiwari pointed out that the Maharashtra government has already announced the mega-farm loans waiver in June 2017 which would cover 90 per cent of the debt-trapped peasants.
“However, till date, bankers have not started giving fresh crop loans to the dying farmers thanks to the hostile farm credit policy of Nabard. The state government has also so far failed to ensure that farmers are paid a fair remunerative price for pulses and gram despite policy announcements,” he said.
Additionally, despite the loan package intended to benefit around six million farmers, timely and sufficient credit to the needy debt-trapped farmers for the current seasons has not materialized yet as the state government has no direct control over the functioning of the public sector banks, he pointed out.
In a separate letter to Singh, the VNSSM chief referred to the National Commission on Farmers Chairman M.S. Swaminathan whose report focused on the growing farmland suicides and recommended solutions through a holistic national policy for farmers.
“Though the state government has started working on core issues raised in the Swaminathan Commission report, the ground reality is that the benefits of the government programmes did not reach small and needy farmers,” Tiwari rued.
Emphasising that farming is still a largely unorganized sector, there is a dire need to promote the farmers’ market where they can avoid middle-men and directly sell produce to the consumers at reasonable prices, he said.
Farmers across the country, including Maharashtra, are on a 10-day agitation to highlight their various pending demands which have resulted in shortages of essentials in the markets and consequently, skyrocketing of prices of vegetables, fruits, food-grains, milk and other items of daily requirements.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business
New Delhi:(IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday called for higher ethanol content in petrol and a concerted effort to push exports in a bid to lower the current sugar surplus and protect the interests of farmers to whom factories owe an estimated Rs.15,000 crore in cane arrears.
“Taking note of the current supply-demand issues with regard to sugar, the prime minister called for assiduous efforts to increase ethanol blending of fuel. He also called for exploring all possibilities for export of sugar,” an official statement said, after a high-level meeting here.
“The prime minister also reviewed the progress with regard to the Rs.6,000 crore incentive package approved by the union government in June 2015,” the statement added, referring to the soft loan extended to sugar mills so that they can clear the arrears to farmers.
“The prime minister emphasized that the farmers’ interest be kept foremost at all times and issues related to sugar sector be monitored regularly. Long-term measures with regard to the sector were also discussed.”
Among those at the meeting were Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan and Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, besides senior officials from their ministries, Niti Aayog and the Prime Minister’s Office.
The meeting also came against the backdrop of the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) estimating the sugar production during the sugar season 2014-15 (October to September) at 28.3 million tonnes and another 28 million tonnes in the next season, besides a carry over of 10 million tonnes.
As a result, supplies have outstripped demand for the fifth straight year. The annual demand is around 25-26 million tonnes.
The sugar mills have warned that if the surplus stocks are not reduced, they may be forced not to start crushing cane in the upcoming season, beginning October 1. But analysts feel the situation was unlikely to improve soon.
“ICRA expects that given the continued sugar surplus scenario in the domestic market and limited possibility of exports in face of falling international sugar prices, domestic sugar prices will continue to remain under pressure in the near term,” aid the ratings agency in its latest report.
“Sugar mills are likely to liquidate their sugar stocks at low prices following pressure from various state governments to clear the high cane arrears,” it said, while also adding: “Government support and rationalization of cane prices will be key factors for restoring the financial health of sugar industry.”
In the past few months, besides the soft loan of Rs.6,000 crore, the government has raised the import duty on sugar from 15 to 40 percent, increased the export subsidy to Rs.4,000 per tonne and raised the level of ethanol blending in petrol to 10 percent.
The government also allowed the export of additional 2,095 tons of raw sugar to the US under the tariff rate quota, under which imports there attract a relatively lower customs duty. Prior to that, 8,424 tonnes of raw sugar had been notified for export to the US.
