Creditably, the Sugar Development Act 1982 has been amended to provide cheap loans for sugar development. But for a country which is to produce an estimated 22 million tonnes of sugar in SY-07, where total sugarcane production is valued at Rs.240 billion per year, the biggest problem Indian farmers & domestic processing companies were facing was that imported sugar was much cheaper than domestically produced sugar. EU is a case in point. EU is one of the largest exporters of sugar with a heft y 14% share in world sugar trade. In fact, one of India’s disagreements during the recent moribund WTO trade talks (refer Policy lead in this issue) was with EU’s continuing subsidies to its farmers that gave them undue advantage. But now, with an EU guarantee that its subsidies will be dropped by 36% over a period of four years, Indian farmers have a huge potential in the new level playing field.
For complete IIPM article click here
Source:- IIPM Editorial, 2006
Editor:- Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri
For complete IIPM article click here
Source:- IIPM Editorial, 2006
Editor:- Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri
