December 15, 2001	Saturday	Ramazan 29, 1422

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BADIN, Dec 14: The growers have stopped supplying sugarcane to the mills as the millers are offering Rs43 per maund for the crop instead of Rs48 per maund which was fixed by the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA), sources told Dawn.

The growers said: “We extended help and sold sugarcane to them on the support price fixed by Pakistan Sugar Mills Association.

The step was taken to support them so that they could start crushing in mills.” But the millers imposed the new prices on Dec 12, to exert pressure on growers for selling crop on low prices, they added.

Sugarcane was an expensive crop as it required double water than other crops. The mills were not offering the reasonable price, said some farmers including Muhammad Hassan Dal Abdul Jabbar Gopang.

The growers further accused the millers of buying crop from big landlords through brokers. They said that under Sugarcane Control Act, there was no provision for a middleman so that growers could get maximum price for their commodity.

But, they said, the brokers were exploiting the sugarcane farmers while encouraging the millers by supplying commodity from outside the district. The middlemen not only purchased the crop at low rate, but also deprive the farmers of their bonus and other benefits which the mills management was obliged to pay , they added. There were nearly 50 middlemen active in the district, who have opened their purchase centres .

The growers threatened that if the millers continued exploitation of farmers, they would cut the supply of the crop to mills forcibly.

They demanded of President Gen Pervez Musharraf and the Sindh governor to take immediate action against middlemen and resolve the problems of sugarcane growers of the district.

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