
The ₹15 question: Why is sugarcane leaving Uttar Pradesh for Haryana?
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Sugarcane farmers in Uttar Pradesh (UP) are selling their produce to mills in neighbouring Haryana, attracted by the latter’s higher state advised price (SAP).
Haryana currently offers one of the highest sugarcane prices in the country, prompting farmers in border villages to divert their crop to its sugar mills, according to two people familiar with the development. State advised price is the minimum price fixed by a state government that sugar mills must pay to farmers for their sugarcane.
While Uttar Pradesh has set the SAP for sugarcane at ₹400 per quintal for early-maturing varieties and ₹390 per quintal for common varieties for the 2025–26 crushing season, the Haryana government has raised the SAP to ₹415 per quintal for early varieties and ₹408 per quintal for late varieties. Although the immediate impact of crop diversion on the quantity of sugarcane sold locally may not be significant, the policy implications are substantial.
The trend could put pressure on other states to increase cane prices or revisit procurement policies to ensure farmers receive better remuneration and are not incentivised to cross state borders in search of higher payouts. “The difference of ₹15 per quintal is enough to influence a farmer’s decision, especially when input costs have surged.
However, it is only viable when the farmer’s field is within 20 km of the mills," said Ranbir Singh, a sugarcane farmer and president of the Saharanpur-based Kisan Nyay Morcha, a farmers' group. Sugar mills in western Uttar Pradesh—particularly in districts like Saharanpur, Shamli, Baghpat and Muzaffarnagar—are facing the issue of this inter-state price war, the first of the two persons cited earlier said, both of
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