• Ink five-point pact with govt
• Mills to clear farmers’ dues

Kathmandu, January 3

Sugarcane farmers today withdrew their week-long protest after inking a five-point agreement with the government that included an assurance that sugar mill operators would be made to clear their outstanding dues by January 21.

Dinesh Bhattarai, joint secretary at the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Supplies, and Hari Shyam Raya, representing the farmers, put their initials on the agreement today.

The agreement mentions that the ministry would form a task force under the coordination of Bhattarai and comprise farmers, sugar industrialists and experts, to identify a sustainable solution to the issue of delayed payment to sugarcane farmers that makes headlines every year.

The task force will also study the status of sugarcane farming, ways to increase productivity, provide fertilisers to farmers on time, make the country self-reliant on sugar and manage sugar mills.

The ministry added that it would immediately send a letter to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development and the Ministry of Finance requesting them to release the subsidy that farmers were supposed to receive.

The government had to pay Rs 1.34 billion subsidy to sugarcane farmers in the last fiscal year. Though it did release Rs 920 million of the total subsidy, the farmers are yet to receive it. The government has been providing subsidy of Rs 60 per quintal to sugarcane farmers.

According to today’s agreement, the ministry will turn its Supply Management Division into Communications Division. Farmers will be able to register their complaints at this division in case they do not receive payment for their produce from industrialists.

The industrialists can also raise their concerns at the division if they face any problem while supplying sugar.

The ministry claimed that sugar mill owners had come in contact with the ministry and had agreed to clear farmers’ dues. “The ministry held frequent discussions with the farmers and industrialists over the past week. Even mill operators who were out of contact earlier are now in touch with us and have agreed to clear farmers’ dues,” the ministry stated.

It is to be noted, however, that the government had inked such agreements with cane farmers earlier also, but had failed to implement them.