Dhwaja Bahadur Bista, a farmer of Bedkot Municipality-3, who has been cultivating sugarcane since the production and price started getting good, has not received the subsidy provided by the government for two years. Dhami got the subsidy for the first year of sugarcane planting.
In the following two years, 2080 and 2081, they have not yet received the grant money. They produced 161 quintals of sugarcane in 2080 and 149 quintals in 2081. "We got the subsidy in the first year, but we haven't received it since then," Dhami said in a discussion about the subsidy given to sugarcane farmers, "Is there some other reason why small farmers like us don't get it?" The government has fixed a subsidy of Rs 70 per quintal on sugarcane to the farmers. Only sugarcane weighed in two sugar mills in the district is given subsidy.
'The area of sugarcane cultivated before the committee and the area of application for subsidy differed,' said Krishna Bahadur Dhami, chief fund controller of Kanchanpur, who is also a member of the sugarcane subsidy payment committee. Details with area should be available to the grant evaluation committee by June. After that, the amount sold in the sugar mill and the amount that goes to the farmer's account is collected. The area of registered farmers is also seen there. Based on that, the grant amount is distributed.
The subsidy evaluation committee has decided to give subsidy of 880 quintals of sugarcane per bigha in Kailali and Kanchanpur. But in Kailali and Kanchanpur, there is a problem due to less area and more production, says Dhami.
'The farmer gives sugarcane to the sugar mill, the mill gives paper. The subsidy comes based on that. Hasta Bahadur Rawal, a farmer from Belauri in Kanchanpur, said, "They don't look at whether he has planted sugarcane in the field, or has it been brought from India and sold?"
In the past five years, the two sugar mills in the district, namely Mahakali and Bhageswar, have used 1 crore 92 lakh 8 thousand 484 quintals of sugarcane, said Fund Controller Dhami. Out of this, only 1 crore 88 lakh 5 thousand 97 quintals have been provided as subsidy. Despite sugarcane crushing in mills, subsidy of Rs 2 crore 81 lakh 81 thousand has not been demanded for 4 lakh 2 thousand 587 quintals of sugarcane in five years.
The government has been giving subsidies only on the basis of sugarcane crushed in sugar mills. There are more than a dozen small goods industries in the district. They also have a large amount of sugarcane crushing. But the farmers who sell sugarcane there do not get any subsidy.
"Farmers should be registered on time at the local level, their details should also come to us on time," Assistant Chief District Officer Parashuram Pokharel, Coordinator of the Subsidy Distribution Committee, said.
