Opposition to meet farm minister on cane price

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Opposition parties will meet Farm Minister Sharad Pawar on Tuesday to sort out procedural differences on sugarcane pricing issue, a top opposition leader said.

Farmers from Uttar Pradesh, the country's biggest cane producer, stalled proceedings on the first two days of the winter session of parliament last week demanding higher state-set price for their produce.

D. Raja, leader of the Communist Party of India, also told reporters that an all-party breakfast meeting held by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee earlier on Monday to sort out differences "was inconclusive".

The Congress party-led government last Friday agreed to drop a contentious clause from a new cane pricing proposal and placed the onus back on mills to pay the difference if state governments raise floor rates fixed by the central government.

Only a few sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh have started crushing cane and production is off to a slow start due to farmers' reluctance to sell their produce.