UP clears 90% cane dues worth Rs 30,831.81 crore in 2025-26 season

Lucknow: The state govt on Wednesday said that it has ensured payment of 90% of the total cane dues, amounting to Rs 30,831.81 crore in the 2025-26 crushing season.The spokesperson said that payments from some sugar mills are still pending, for which instructions to clear them as soon as possible have been issued.In crushing season 2025-26, a total of 121 sugar mills are operational in Uttar Pradesh. These include 3 mills of UP State Sugar Corporation, 23 mills of UP Cooperative Sugar Mills Federation and 95 private sugar mills. Together, they crushed 877.96 lakh tonnes of sugarcane and produced 89.68 lakh tonnes of sugar.“Though UP has fewer mills than Maharashtra’s 210, they achieved an average sugar recovery of 10.21%,” the spokesperson said. Notably, Maharashtra’s sugar recovery stands at 9.49%, while Karnataka’s is 8.19%.The state govt also increased sugarcane prices by Rs 30 per quintal in the 2025-26 season, taking the State Advisory Price to Rs 400 per quintal for early varieties and Rs 390 per quintal for general varieties. Due to this increase, sugarcane farmers received an additional sugarcane price payment of around Rs 3,000 crore.During the tenure of the Yogi govt, sugarcane prices have been increased for the fourth time. Timely payments have provided economic strength to 48 lakh sugarcane farmer families in the state. The Sugarcane Development Department is also playing an important role in taking the state’s economy towards the one trillion dollar target.The spokesperson said that the state govt ensured a total payment of Rs 3,22,722 crore since 2017, when the Yogi Adityanath govt came to power.He said that under the ‘Smart Ganna Kisan’ system, the process of sugarcane area registration, survey, calendaring and slip issuance has been made completely online. Farmers now receive their sugarcane slips directly on their mobile phones, while payments are transferred to their bank accounts through DBT.