Purushottam Subedi
West Nawalparasi, Kartik 22 — As major festivals like Tihar and Chhath knock at the door, the eyes of sugarcane farmers in West Nawalparasi are filled not with joy, but with grief and tears. Even after years of delivering hard-earned sugarcane crops to sugar mills, farmers are forced to celebrate this year’s festivities completely empty-handed due to pending payments.
Forget purchasing new clothes, covering household expenses, financing children’s education, or paying for medical treatments; farmers are overwhelmed with worry about how to clear private loans and bank interest. As usual, economic distress and mental agony have overshadowed the festive cheer in the households of sugarcane growers this year.
Umesh Chandra Yadav, Chairperson of Pratapur Rural Municipality and Central Spokesperson for the Sugarcane Producers Association, stated that sugar industries have pushed farmers into a severe financial crisis by withholding their payments for an extended period. According to him, both Indira Sugar Mill and Sunwal-based Lumbini Sugar Industry have stranded farmers by delaying their hard-earned money. Yadav expressed deep concern over the irresponsible behavior of industrialist owners right on the eve of major festivals.
Indira Sugar Mill, located in Pratapur of West Nawalparasi, has failed to clear approximately NPR 70 million owed to farmers for past years. The mill has been completely shut down for the past two years, and its operator, Rakesh Agarwal, has gone out of contact without clearing the farmers’ dues.
Regarding legal actions, Police Inspector Resham Lal Paudel of the Area Police Office, Belatari, informed that a fraud case has been registered against operator Agarwal at the Belatari Police Office, and an investigation is underway. As the mill operator is currently residing in India and avoiding contact, Police Inspector Paudel mentioned that the police are preparing to complete the investigation within the stipulated timeframe and forward the case file to the District Court.
On the other hand, the outstanding payment owed to farmers by Lumbini Sugar Industry in Sunwal appears to be decreasing significantly. The industry reported a remaining liability of only about NPR 8.5 to 8.7 million—comprising around NPR 7.5 million from FY 2022/23 and NPR 1 to 1.2 million from last year. According to Keshav Raj Acharya, Executive Officer of the industry, preparations are underway to settle these remaining dues before resuming mill operations this season.
Once hailed as a ‘cash crop,’ sugarcane grown with sweat and toil has now turned into a ‘debt-ridden and tragic crop’ for farmers in West Nawalparasi. Farmers express frustration that the government has failed to take concrete action despite their sit-in protests on cold pavements, ranging from the gates of the District Administration Office to Maitighar Mandala in Kathmandu. They have strongly demanded that the government auction off the assets of absconding and irresponsible sugar mill owners to ensure they receive their rightful earnings during this festive period.
There are four major sugar industries operating in Nawalparasi (Bardaghat Susta West). Among them, Mohini Sugar Mill and Indira Sugar Mill have been closed for a long time. Currently, only Bagmati Sugar Industry and Lumbini Sugar Industry operate on a seasonal and partial basis.
West Nawalparasi once produced 3 to 4.5 million quintals of sugarcane annually. However, owing to payment hassles, industrial fraud, and unrecovered investment costs, farmers are increasingly shifting toward banana, vegetable, and alternative farming. Consequently, annual sugarcane production in the district has plummeted to just around 1.5 to 1.8 million quintals, resulting in a shortage of raw sugarcane even for the currently operational mills.
