Page:Sharad Joshi - Leading Farmers to the Centre Stage.pdf/136

 Chairman Boraste fully endorsed the demand at the public meeting. He announced that the farmers from Nifad taluka would not give their sugarcane when the factory production season started unless their demand was accepted. On the 9 October there was a general body meeting of the factory where 5,500 member farmers were present. Chairman Boraste spoke strongly in support of the demand of Rs. 300 per ton and the meeting unanimously passed a resolution supporting that price. Chairman Boraste’s public endorsement of that demand and the passing of the resolution by the member-farmers giving support to it was a sensational event. Boraste deserved all kudos for that courageous step. In taking it he not only put his personal prestige at stake, but also his entire future in the cooperative sector. He invited wrath of all the Congress bosses of the State for whom sugar growing belt was the unchallenged source of support. He was a friend of Vasantdada Patil who later became Chief Minister and Boraste had a bright political future. But now he suddenly found himself pitched against the dominant sugar lobby. Boraste was also chairman of the Maharashtra State Cooperative Sugar Factories Federartion. When someone like Boraste himself supported that demand, it became impossible for other sugar factories to oppose it. Boraste had to pay a heavy personal price for his act of courage. His untimely death was a major blow to sugarcane farmers and to SS. This demand for Rs. 300 a ton of sugarcane should be properly understood. According to the figures for 1980, the average price per ton paid by the factories to farmers was Rs. 145 whereas the cost of growing that sugarcane was minimum Rs. 290 a ton, as worked out by SS. From one ton of sugarcane, about 100 kilos of sugar was produced and the conversion cost was Rs. 125 per ton. (These are tentative figures; in reality the amount of sugar produced depended on several factors.) So, even if the demand of Rs. 300 per ton of sugarcane was granted, the cost of producing 100 kilos of sugar was to be Rs. 300 + Rs. 125 = Rs. 425. The cost of producing one kilo Bitter Story of Sugarcane

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