Lucknow, Dec 18 (IANS) Agitating farmers, seeking a uniform price policy for their sugarcane produce, late Thursday night called off their two-day old stir following a blanket assurance by state officials to concede their demand, leaders of the farmers’ association confirmed Friday.
The agreement was struck between Uttar Pradesh sugarcane commissioner Sudhir Bobde and Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan chief V.M. Singh, who was leading the demonstration, following which thousands of agitating farmers returned to their respective villages.

“The state government has agreed to bring an end to the discriminatory price policy whereby different sugar mills were paying a different price to the sugarcane growers in their area. In many cases, members of the same cane growers union were being paid varying prices for the same type of produce, even by the same mill,” Singh told reporters here.

“The state government has also conceded the farmer’s demand for payment of the revised cane price of Rs.215 per quintal with retrospective effect from the initial procurement for the current crushing season.”

“This would benefit farmers in a big way as the State Advised Price (SAP) of Rs.165-Rs.170, fixed by the state government in October was extremely low and not remunerative,” he said.

While the state had yet to enhance the formally announced SAP, Chief Minister Mayawati had authorised divisional commissioners and district magistrates to negotiate a higher price with the mills in their respective jurisdictions. But that had led to vast variations in the price, depending on the bargaining capacities of different mill-owners and farmers.

“That was why we were seeking a revision in the SAP itself,” Singh pointed out.