The government has allocated Tk 1.0 billion for purchasing sugarcane grown in the catchment areas of six state-run sugar mills with a view to protecting farmers from financial losses, an official said.
The crushing of sugarcane in these six mills has been suspended for this year's crushing season.
The Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation (BSFIC) has started the process to purchase the sugarcane directly from the farmers, a high official of BSFIC told the FE on Sunday.
The sugarcane then will be used in nine other state-run sugar mills for producing sugar.
The government earlier took the decision not to crush sugarcane at the six sugar mills in order to avoid recurrence of losses.
But this decision has enraged farmers as well as the workers of the sugar mills as they feared that they might lose their jobs.
Some farmers had even tried to burn their sugarcane in Rangpur district, fearing that the government might not purchase their produce.
Considering the farmers interests, the ministry of industries then asked the BSFIC to give green signal to nine sugar mills to start crushing sugarcane.
The BSFIC official said the government will purchase sugarcane produced in the catchment areas of Kushtia Sugar Mills, Pabna Sugar Mills, Panchagarh Sugar Mills, Shyampur Sugar Mills, Rangpur Sugar Mills and Setabganj Sugar Mills although these mills will not crush sugarcane this year
Production at these sugar mills will remain suspended until further notice, he added.