Bharatiya Janata Party[BJP] Kisan Morcha President Rajkumar Chahar has hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to increase the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) of sugarcane to its ‘highest level’ of Rs 290 per quintal.

Describing the Modi government’s move as ‘historic’, Chahar and Vijay Singh Tomar, both members of Parliament, said, ‘It also shows the Narendra Modi government is always with the farmers and cares for the welfare and upliftment of our farming community.’

‘The FRP rate enhancement is the highest so far in the country. The decision will benefit around 5 crore sugarcane farmers in the country besides around 5 lakh workers directly and indirectly engaged in the sector,’ the BJP Kisan Morcha leader pointed out.

The Kisan Morcha president slammed the previous Congress-led UPA government’s handling of the sugarcane farmers issues and asserted that the Modi government is committed to the welfare of farmers and doubling their incomes.

‘Congress-led United Progressive Alliance ( UPA ) government had imported 40 lakh metric tonnes of sugar from Brazil when there was no need for it in the country. And then for another one and a half year, the government tried to distribute it unnecessarily when there was no need for it,’ Chahar alleged.

In the sugar season of 2021-22, the production expenditure of sugarcane is Rs 155 per quintal. The 10 per cent increase in the minimum price that mills have to pay to sugarcane growers, also known as the Fair and Remunerative Price ( FRP), by Rs 5 per quintal to Rs 290 a quintal is 87.1 per cent, is higher than the production expenditure. It fulfils the government’s promise of giving farmers more than 50 per cent more return on their produce, Chahar further added.

The Kisan Morcha leader said the decision of the Modi government would ‘make our farmers more prosperous and strong. It will also help in doubling the income of our farmers and make our farmers prosperous.’ He claimed that no other government in the past had done so much for farmers in the last seven decades as the present PM Modi led government at the Centre.