India Approves $173 Million Subsidy for Sugar Cane Growers
- India seeks to export 3 million tons of sugar in 2015-16
- Government to encourage mills to produce more ethanol, power
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India, the world’s biggest sugar producer after Brazil, will pay 11.47 billion rupees ($173 million) to subsidize part of the cane payments made to farmers as record costs cause losses at sugar mills.
India’s cabinet approved a proposal by the food ministry to pay a 4.5 rupee subsidy per 100 kilograms of sugar cane to farmers in the year that began Oct. 1, Power Minister Piyush Goyal told reporters in New Delhi on Wednesday. The subsidy will be given directly to the farmers who supply cane to mills that will export sugar and produce ethanol, at least 80 percent of a government-set quota, he said.