As cane arrears pile up, UP sugar millers seek reforms.

With sugar prices sliding and the arrears of cane growers piling up, millers in Uttar Pradesh have approached chief minister Yogi Adityanath, seeking immediate measures to save the industry. The UP Sugar Millers Association (UPSMA) has suggested bridging the gap between the state advisory price and the paying capacity of the sugar mills by providing a cash assistance of Rs 40 per quintal directly to the farmers. Other measures suggested by the UPSMA include: creating a buffer stock of sugar similar to the one in Maharashtra at Rs 3,400 per quintal, having a two-tier cane price paying system due to non-availability of adequate working capital and constituting a committee to prepare a framework towards adopting a revenue sharing formula for pricing of sugarcane. Cane arrears have already touched Rs 8,000 crore. With more than a month to go before the sugar season ends, all the stakeholders, the farmers, mills as well as state government are bracing to be singed with the prospect of the arrears rising further in the coming weeks.