November 13, 2001	Tuesday	Shaba’an 26, 1422

KARACHI, Nov 12: No fund has been provided for research and development of sugarcane despite repeated assurances by the federal government to allocate 15 per cent of the total sugarcane cess collection for this purpose.

According to an estimate, the collection of sugarcane development cess on annual basis comes to Rs367.6 million, which is charged at varying rates in all the three sugarcane producing provinces — Sindh, Punjab and NWFP.

However, the average rate of cess comes at around 50 paisa per 40 kg of sugarcane and if last year’s sugarcane production of 29.409 million tons is taken into account the amount would come to Rs367.6 million in collection.

Consequently, 15 per cent of the entire collection by the federal government for research and development work would come to Rs55 million per annum.

President, Pakistan Society of Sugar Technologists (PSST), Mohammad Shaffat Zaidi, told Dawn that due to non-availability of funds for research and development the country was unable to develop new sugarcane varieties, particularly when the existing sugarcane research centres were also suffering because of paucity of funds.

He said at present five research institutes were operating in the public sector and run on government grants, which was not sufficient for research and development work.

Responding to a question, he said presently the entire amount of cess collection was spent on development of roads and infrastructure. However, he opined that even after sparing 15 per cent of the amount, still huge funds would be available for the development of roads.

Shaffat Zaidi said if “we do not involve private sector, particularly universities in research and development, not much could be achieved”.

He said there was a standing offer from vice-chancellor, Karachi University, Dr Zafar Saeed Saifi, for providing laboratory facilities for the research work on sugarcane. But some funds would be needed to carry out this work, which was not available, he added.

He urged the federal government to immediately ask the provincial governments to allocate 15 per cent out of the total cess collection to research and development work so that better sugarcane varieties are developed.

The PSST president said that in India there was 175 per cent more sugarcane production per hector, which makes its industry competitive as well as viable.

Even if Rs10 million is spared for the research work at the Karachi University from the total expected amount of Rs55 million, the research work could get going, Shaffat stressed.

The sugar industry, he said, could not become cost-effective unless high-yielding and sucrose contents sugarcane was developed.