(From left) Chairman of Riga Sugar Co. Ltd, OP Dhanuka, sugarcane industries minister Awadhesh Prasad Kushwaha and principal secretary CK Mishra at the seminar in Patna on Monday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, Sept. 12: State sugarcane industries minister Awadhesh Prasad Kushwaha today demanded that the Centre give the state the right to fix the price of sugarcane to enable fair and remunerative price to the sugarcane growers.

“The Centre should bestow the right of fixing the price of sugarcane to the state government so that it could fix a fair and remunerative price after consultations with all the stakeholders concerned, such as sugar mill owners, farmers and others,” said Kushwaha at a two-day-long international conference on sugarcane on its opening day.

Aimed at promoting private investment in the sugar industry sector in the state, farmers, experts, scientists, mill owners and officials from Bihar, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh are taking part in the conference, which has turned into a national one.

The sugarcane industries minister said the state legislature has already passed an amendment act (Bihar Sugarcane (Regulation of Supply and Purchase Amendment) Act, 2007), which envisages the provision to fix the price of sugarcane. However, it is pending with the President.

Exhorting the scientists to update the state’s farmers to latest techniques for sugarcane farming, so that productivity could be increased to the level of Tamil Nadu (100 tonne per hectare), Kushwaha said: “Our sugarcane acreage has increased to more than 3.25 lakh hectare from around 2.5 lakh hectare in six years of NDA rule. We have initiated the process for inviting a fourth tender for conducting bids to lease out the nine state-owned sugar mills.”

The principal secretary of the department, C.K. Mishra, said: “Bihar’s future lies in the sugar industries. If industrial revolution has to come to the state, it would only come through sugar industries. Our main problem is of low productivity and we are working hard to increase it. The farmers are being provided the latest tools and techniques of sugarcane cultivation.”

O.P. Dhanuka, the chairman and managing director of Riga Sugar Co. Ltd, and C.B. Patodia of Mill Association demanded that the sugar sector should be de-controlled.

Although Mishra assured mill owners that the government would act on their suggestions form the summit within a month, he made no bones in stating that industries would not grow with government help alone but according to their own capacity.

Mishra said Bihar used to contribute 25 per cent to sugar production in early 1970s, which has now reduced to less than two per cent. He, however, said cane acreage has increased to 3.27 lakh hectare from 2.27 lakh in 2000 and crushing capacity has reached 60,000 tonne crush per day from 32,000 tonne crush per day in 2000.

Rajeev Ranjan, sugarcane commissioner, Tamil Nadu, said how the southern state has achieved success despite all odds, including lacking irrigation facilities and labour problems. Tamil Nadu, which produces 101.6 tonne per hectare in comparison to Bihar’s 46 tonne per hectare, has 18 public sector undertaking sugar mills out of a total 46 mills, said Ranjan.