Sugarcane growers in Tamil Nadu will receive a special incentive of Rs 150 per tonne during the crushing season 2020-21. This is in addition to the Centre's declared fair and remunerative price of Rs 2,707.5 per tonne tied to 9.5 percent sugar recovered, as well as the Transitional Production Incentive of Rs 42.50 per tonne for the 2020-21 crushing seasons.
The state government had approved a fund of Rs 54.70 crore earlier this month for the special incentive. According to a government order, the revelation will allow farmers to get Rs 2,900 per tonne for sugarcane delivered to cooperative, public, and private sector sugar mills from the command region of each sugar mill.
Meanwhile, the Department of Sugar has asked all sugar mills to submit a report on the amount of cane given by each farmer during the 2020-21 crushing season, as well as bank account information.
The Sugar Commissioner, in collaboration with the Government Data Centre (GDC), will aggregate data from the mills and create a farmer database. A third-party consultant will be hired to enter data, offer relevant inputs to the District Level Committee, and collect UTR numbers as evidence for Direct Benefit Transfer disbursement, according to the government order.
The Office of the Commissioner of Sugar will build and create a mill-by-mill farmers' database in collaboration with the GDC and the Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency.
For more transparency, the list of farmers determined suitable will be pasted in the sugar mill office, village administrative office, and block development office. The funds will be instantly sent to the farmers' bank accounts. "The full operation is expected to be completed within 9 months, from data gathering through transfer of the special incentive," the government order added.
Few days back the government had informed that 98 percent of Sugarcane Arrears to Farmers has been cleared.
