Amid the ongoing farmers' protests against the new agricultural reform laws, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Wednesday has approved assistance of about Rs. 3,500 crore for sugarcane farmers (Ganna Kisan).

The decision will prove to be beneficial to five crore sugarcane farmers and their dependents, alongside five lakh workers employed in the sugar mills and related ancillary activities.  

According to an official release, there are close to five crore sugarcane farmers (Ganna Kisan) and their dependents in India. In addition to this, there are about five lakh workers employed in the sugar mills and ancillary activities; and their livelihood depends on the sugar industry.

"Farmers sell their sugarcane to the sugar mills, however the farmers are not getting their dues from the sugar mill owners as they have surplus sugar stock. To address this concern, the Government is facilitating the evacuation of surplus sugar stock. This will enable payment of dues of the sugarcane farmers. Government will incur about Rs. 3,500 crore for this purpose, and this assistance would be directly credited into farmers' accounts on behalf of sugar mills against cane price dues and subsequent balance, if any, would be credited to mill's account," it said.

"This subsidy aims at covering expenses on marketing costs including handling, upgrading, and other processing costs and costs of international and internal transport and freight charges on the export of up to 60 LMT of sugar limited to Maximum Admissible Export Quota (MAEQ) allocated to sugar mills for sugar season 2020-21," it added.