The Fair and Remunerative Price of Sugarcane is approved by the

The answer is A) Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs. The sequence is that the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) examines costs and recommends the FRP, and the CCEA then approves it. The FRP is the minimum price that sugar mills must pay farmers for cane, under the Sugarcane (Control) Order, 1966, issued under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955.

• B is wrong because CACP only recommends. It has no approving power. Its recommendations go to the government, and the CCEA decides.
• C is wrong because the Directorate of Marketing and Inspection is an attached office of the Ministry of Agriculture that handles grading, standards and marketing services. It does not fix prices.
• D is wrong because APMCs are state-level bodies under the State APMC Acts that regulate mandi trade. They have no role in sugarcane pricing.

The core concept is the difference between recommending and approving a price. This matters for Mains questions on agricultural price policy, sugar sector distortions and farmer dues. Note that states can announce a State Advised Price above the FRP, but the FRP itself is the central floor.

Trap: aspirants confuse CACP with CCEA, or mix up FRP with MSP, which is approved differently.