Farmers slam UP govt's status quo on sugarcane price for 2022-23 season

Opposition says move will ruin farmers economically; meanwhile food secy says Centre will take a call next month on increasing sugar export quota

Farmers leaders and Opposition parties have reacted strongly to the reported move by the UP government to keep the state-advised price of sugarcane for the 2022-23 crushing season unchanged from last year. The current season started in October.

UP is one of India's largest sugar producing states with about 4.5 million farmers directly growing the crop.

According to some reports, the UP government has retained the State Advised Price (SAP) of Rs 350 per quintal for early sown sugarcane varieties, Rs 340 for general varieties and Rs 335 per quintal for rejects, for the 2022-23 crushing season.

However, there has been no official