State farmers cheer year of cane; raise acreage

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A young farmer in blue jeans and a white shirt is cheerfully explaining to the tractor operator how he wanted the furrows dug across his 1-acre field in this village in Satara, 270 km south of Mumbai.

Sudhir Bhosle's cheer stems from an assured record price for his cane harvest this year. Sugar mills in Maharashtra, India's largest producer, are literally fighting to please him.

No wonder the 26-year-old is planting cane where he grew soybean in the summer.

Industry officials say, the trend could revitalise cane cultivation and help the world's biggest sugar consumer raise output and trim imports, which doubled sugar futures this year.

The situation in Maharashtra is in a sharp contrast to the second biggest producer Uttar Pradesh, where after a month-long protests mills and farmers association on Wednesday agreed on cane procurement price of Rs 1,900-1,950 per tonne.

"In Maharashtra there is no agitation for cane price," Prakash Naiknavare, managing director, Maharashtra State Cooperative Sugar Factories Federation, said.

"The millers have already paid an initial advance of Rs 1,750 per tonne and the final payment would be in the region of Rs 2,300-2,400."

Some millers in the state have already declared they were willing to pay Rs 2,500 per tonne.

Sugar prices in India have nearly doubled in 2009 on a sharp drop in the output in 2008/09 as lower cane price had prompted farmers to trim area under the perennial crop.

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