Sarlahi, December 17:

Sugarcane farmers are worried over late opening of the only sugar factory in the Sarlahi district.

“This is sugarcane harvest season but the delay in resumption of operations of Indu Shanker Sugar Mill this year will hurt sugarcane farmers. Its already half December,” they complained, adding that last year, the mill had resumed its operation from November 27.

Dispute in fixing price of sugarcane between sugarcane farmers and the mill had delayed the resumption of the mill. President of Nepal Sugarcane Producers’ Federation, Kapil Muni Mainali, said that sugarcane should be priced at Rs 150 per quintal. “The mill had paid Rs 184 per quintal last year,” he added.

“But the mill incurred a loss last year due to delay in delivery of sugar to the market,” general manager at the Indu Shanker Sugar Mill Bijay Kant Jha, said, adding that the mill is in no position to pay the price demanded by sugarcane producers as the mill has incurred loss last year.

Crop development officer at the district agriculture development (DAO) office Dev Sharan Shah said that it is almost certain that the farmers will be in loss this year due to delay in harvesting.

The mill had postponed an annual ritual of worshipping the mill before its resumption saying that it cannot offer last year’s price to farmers.

The chairman of the Hariwan VDC, Dilli Uprety, said that a total of 54,000 sugarcane farmers are involved with the Indu Shanker Sugar Mill.

“A total of five million quintals of sugarcane is expected this year. However, the mill management plans to crush only 3.5 million quintals of sugarcane,” he said.

Last year, sugarcane farmers also had to incur a huge loss due to agitation of Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum and Chure Bhawar Ekta Samaj. “They could not deliver sugarcane to the mill on time and thousands of quintals of sugarcane was wasted on the field.”

Due to the price dispute every year, the sugarcane farmers are discouraged. One of the sugarcane farmers at Haraiya VDC Bhillai Chaudhary said that he is not planting sugarcane from next year.