Kathmandu, Jan. 18 -- Sugarcane farmer Ashok Yadav got tired of waiting for the government to fix the minimum price for this year's crop, and decided to sell his harvest at last year's rate.

Yadav had delayed selling his sugarcane for more than one and a half months, but there was no sign from the government that the floor price would be published anytime soon.

So he loaded up his harvest on a tractor trailer and trundled off to Baba Baijunath Sugar Mill to sell it at the old rate of Rs590 per quintal. The minimum support price is the government guaranteed price for farmers which is set annually.

"I had no option so I decided to sell it at last year's rate despite a rise in the cost of production," said Yadav. If the sugarcane is left ...