Fair and Remunerative Prices for Sugarcane

Fair and Remunerative Prices for Sugarcane

Subject – Agriculture

Context – The Union government has increased the minimum price that sugar mills must pay to sugar cane farmers by ₹5 a quintal, setting the fair and remunerative price (FRP) at ₹290 a quintal for the 2021­-22 sugar season, which runs from October to September.

Concept –

• Sugar industry is an important agro-based industry that impacts rural livelihood of about 50 million sugarcane farmers and around 5 lakh workers directly employed in sugar mills.
• India is the world’s second largest sugar producer after Brazil and also the largest consumer.
• FRP is the minimum price that the sugar mills have to pay to farmers.
• It is supposed to signal to farmers the need to plant more or less cane for the coming year.
• Sugarcane prices are determined by:
  • Federal Government
  • State Government
• The Federal/Central Government announces Fair and Remunerative Prices which are determined on the recommendation of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) and are announced by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, which is chaired by Prime Minister.
• The State Advised Prices (SAP)are announced by key sugarcane producing states which are generally higher than FRP.