सिंहदरबार संवाददाता
Sarlahi. Jiwas Mandal of Barhathawa Municipality-8, Sarlahi, has earned a sweet income from the sugarcane (gun) business. He is over 65 years old and has been operating a crusher near his house for eight years.
He said that although farming is his main occupation, he runs a coal crusher as a seasonal occupation. He says that he earns five to seven lakh rupees from selling sugar every year from this occupation, which lasts for three to four months. “I have been running coal for eight years, and with this income alone I have been able to run the house and save some money,” he said. He used to run coal especially from the last week of Kartik until Falgun/Chait. He said that Mandal, which crushes up to 50 quintals of sugarcane daily, makes more than five hundred kg of sugar and sends it to the market. Traders sell the sugarcane he produces for 60 to 120 rupees. He said, ‘Good sugarcane fetches a high price. If it is a little dirty, the price comes less.’
Mandal says that he buys sugarcane planted in nearby fields and crushes it. Since the sugar factories in the district are running slowly, farmers who plant other crops instead of sugarcane are in a hurry to cut sugarcane. Farmers who need to sell sugarcane on time to plant other crops such as corn, wheat, mustard, and potatoes face problems when the sugar factories run slowly. He buys sugarcane from those farmers and sells it as sugar. Local farmers also say that even though the sugar factories do not buy it on time, they have been able to save a small amount of money by selling it to Mandal. This year too, Mandal said that he purchased sugarcane at Rs 450 per quintal. Even though the industry pays a slightly higher price, sugarcane farmer Ramjanam Roy of Barhathawa-8 said that it is easier to give sugarcane to the coal mill because there are problems with transportation, expenses, and getting money for years.
Mandal said, “I know the problems of sugarcane farmers well. He said that the farmers are paid within seven/eight days. This also makes the farmers carry the sugarcane themselves and bring it.” He informed that some farmers are given money to cultivate, buy seeds and fertilizers for planting, and cover household expenses before they buy the sugarcane. Mandal also gave work to five other people at the crusher. They have also lost their livelihood for three to four months due to this.
There are about 50 coal crushers in operation in the district like Mandal’s. The coal crushers alone crush more than 250,000 quintals of sugarcane annually. More than 250 people are employed in this profession. Around 2,500 kg of sugar is produced in Sarlahi alone. Local businessman Dinesh Mahato said that the sugar produced here reaches not only neighboring districts but also cities like Kathmandu, Chitwan, Biratnagar.
Indian sugar is hurting local farmers
Mandal complains that local producers are hurting due to sugar smuggled from the Indian market. “The cost is low because the Indian government provides large subsidies to farmers,” he said. “How can crops produced from fertilizers and seeds bought from the black market compete?” Our costs are high.’ He claims that the sugar coming from India is not of good quality. Due to this, Nepali consumers are forced to be cheated, he informed. He said, ‘Most consumers are not aware of this. They say they got it cheaply, but later they have to regret it.’ He said that unless the substandard sugar entering the country from the Indian border is controlled, local products will not be able to find a market and consumers will also be cheated.
Sugar industry rushes to pull sugarcane
Sugar industries have started buying sugarcane from farmers in a hurry even before the government fixes the minimum price of sugarcane. Three sugar industries in the district have started crushing as they prepare for operation. The Annapurna Sugar Industry in Dhankaul district, which has been embroiled in controversy for not paying farmers for sugarcane for a long time, has started purchasing sugarcane from farmers.
The industry has started crushing 26,871 quintals of sugarcane in four days since it started crushing on November 20, informed the industry manager Shailendra Gupta. Local farmers say that Annapurna, which has a reputation for not paying for sugarcane purchased and causing pain to farmers, is now trying to gain the trust of farmers after being operated by a new industrialist. This year, the industry has tried to gain the trust of farmers by crushing from the first week of November. Gupta said that the crushing has now started in good coordination with the farmers. “The old dues of the farmers have been paid.” According to the industry manager Pawan Kumar Singh, the industry is targeting to crush around 1.8 million quintals of sugarcane this year.
B. In 2079, after much initiative by the new industrialist, some farmers received the old payment. After that, the industry was operational. At the end of the crushing season, the industry, which tried to operate, had crushed only about 68 thousand quintals due to equipment malfunction. Local sugarcane farmers have said that they have not yet been able to give sugarcane with full trust to the industry.
‘Bindeshwar Mahato, a resident of Dhankaul Rural Municipality-3 in the district, said that he gave a small amount of sugarcane. ‘I have stopped planting sugarcane.’ He said, ‘I have given the sugarcane grown in a small field to the village industry again. The industrialist promised to pay within 15 days at the most.’ Locals directly involved in the industry have given sugarcane in the first phase. Mahato said that the sugarcane produced in this area is being supplied to Hariban’s Indushankar Sugar Factory in Hariban and Godaita Municipality’s Mahalaxmi Sugar Factory in Bagdaha. While other industries in the district are delaying the operation of the industry, saying that the sugar from the harvested sugarcane is not good, Annapurna has brought the industry into operation ahead of time to win the hearts of the farmers.
Sugarcane manager Dinesh Agrahari informed that the industry is targeting to crush at least 1.5 million quintals of sugarcane this year. Another sugarcane farmer, Brijendra Raya, said that the industrialists and management are reaching the fields and urging the farmers to give sugarcane. Similarly, Mahalaxmi Sugar Factory in Bagdaha in Godaita Municipality has said that it has started this year’s crushing. Singh informed that the industry has been operating after collecting sugarcane for a few days. He also said that the industry has some outstanding payments for the year and that too will be paid in a week or two. Last year, this industry crushed 1.237 million quintals of sugarcane. Another sugar industry in the district, Indushankar, has also announced that it will start crushing from the last week of Mangsir.
The Indushankar Sugar Industry, located in Harivan, a district considered to be the most well-organized in the country, is preparing for crushing for this season, said Thakur Nepal, the administrative head of the industry. The industry has announced that it will crush 3.5 million quintals of sugarcane this year. The industry had crushed 2.148 million quintals of sugarcane last year. The industries in the district could not operate due to delays in the payment of sugarcane subsidy, and the sugar industries here said that they did not get enough sugarcane as industries in other districts had taken large quantities of sugarcane from Sarlahi. According to statistics, Sarlahi, which has the largest sugarcane cultivation in the country, produces 70 to 8 million quintals of sugarcane annually.
Support price in doubt
Both farmers and industrialists are confused as the government has not fixed the support price of sugarcane for this season even as Mangsir is almost half over. Sugarcane farmers complain that no decision has been made even as the time to harvest and sell sugarcane is ticking away. “If there was a system to fix the support price in advance, we would have been able to plant sugarcane if it was beneficial to us and not plant it if it was not,” said Kapilmuni Mainali, President of the Nepal Sugarcane Producers’ Federation.
Meanwhile, sugarcane industries are preparing to purchase sugarcane by paying the support price set by the government last year. Mahalaxmi Sugar Industry has stated that arrangements have been made to purchase sugar at the previous year’s price, with the government later paying the support price. However, farmers are worried that they will not get the remaining amount added by the government later. The previous price was fixed at Rs 565 per quintal.
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