Aiming to boost the income of farmers, the Uttar Pradesh government has made sugarcane payments totalling Rs 2,50,137 crore to farmers since 2017 till now.

Notably, this amount is Rs 36,618 crore more than the total payments made from 1995 to March 2017 (22 years).

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According to official data here on Tuesday, within the past 24 hours, sugarcane farmers in UP were paid Rs 163.29 crore by various sugar mills.

According to the Sugar Industry and Cane Development Department, farmers were paid Rs 52,131 crore between 2007 and 2012, Rs 95,215 crore from 2012 to 2017, Rs 1,66,424 crore from 2017 to 2022, and Rs 83,713 crore from 2022 till now. So, in the last seven years, from 2017 till now, Rs 2,50, 137 crore was paid to the farmers.

As per the department, sugarcane price of Rs 29,053 crore has been paid so far in the current session 2023-24, which is 82.55 per cent of the total payable. Currently, a total of 121 operating sugar mills (8.40 lakh TCD crushing capacity) have so far crushed 975.73 lakh tonnes of sugarcane and produced 103.28 lakh tonnes of sugar.

In the crushing season of 2022-23, out of the total 118 operational sugar mills in the state, except for the sugarcane payment of one private sector sugar mill amounting to Rs 213 crore, the remaining Rs 37,838 crore (99.44 per cent) has been fully paid.

During the crushing season of 2022-23, the 118 operational sugar mills processed 1098.82 lakh tonnes of sugarcane, yielding 104.82 lakh tonnes of sugar.

Since March 2017, three new sugar mills have been established in the state. Additionally, a total of 1,10,600 TCD (tonnes crushed per day) has been generated owing to the reopening of 6 sugar mills and expansion of capacity of 38 sugar mills. This has resulted in generating direct, or indirect employment opportunities for approximately 1,21,660 people.

With the establishment of 285 new Khandsari units in the state, the total crushing capacity has reached 73,700 TCD, providing direct or indirect employment to approximately 41,800 people. Consequently, an additional crushing capacity of 1,84,300 TCD has been generated in both sugar mills and Khandsari units.

A total of 3,208 women self-help groups with 60,093 registered members are active in the state under the Sugar Department. These groups have produced 48 crore sugarcane seedlings so far. They get Rs 1.30 on seedling production from a single bud and Rs 1.30 on seedling production from bud chip. The subsidy is being given at the rate of Rs 1.50 per seedling.

Reports say in UP that the total ethanol production was 42.07 crore litres in 2016-17, which increased to 153.71 crore litres in 2022-23. By March 31, 2023-24, a total of 175.11 crore litres of ethanol had been produced.

To increase sugarcane productivity, reduce farming costs, and enhance farmers’ income, the first phase commenced with a one-day specialised training for 2.25 lakh interested sugarcane farmers whose landholding is more than 5 acres. These training sessions were initiated at the Council of Sugarcane Research Centres in Muzaffarnagar, Shahjahanpur, and Seorahi.