October 27, 2003	Monday	Sha’aban 30, 1424

As all-powerful and influential sugar mill owners and an ever-negligent establishment lock their horns with each other once again, the poor sugar-cane growers are emerging as the ultimate sufferers in this new power struggle.

The recently held annual general meeting of the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) in Lahore ended with the warning that new crushing would not be started until the surplus stocks are either consumed or purchased by the government. The PSMA says that its members are holding more than 700,000 tonnes of sugar country-wide.

The government on the other hand seems unconvinced and it has refused to purchase more than 100,000 tonnes of sugar. It says that the millers have got united and started using blackmailing tactics. The federal Minister for Food, Agriculture and Livestock, Mr. Yar Mohammed Rind, has said in a recent press statement that the PSMA is presenting false figures of surplus stocks.

Mr. Rind says that the millers had earlier told the government that they would be having 132,000 tonnes of sugar at the start of the crushing season. So the cabinet decided to purchase 100,000 tonnes at a cost of Rs600 million for export. Now the association is coming up with exaggerated figures.

This is not happening for the first time in this country. Every year at the start of the cane crushing season, the millers deliberately delay the crushing citing one excuse or other. This is done to force the growers sell their crop for less than the fixed price. Same is the situation this year. If the crushing is delayed, helpless growers would have no other option but to sell the standing cane crop to exploitative middlemen for much less than Rs43 per maund.

But the lower price for agri produce is not the only challenge that growers are facing at the time. With the wheat sowing season starting in the country, growers are not able to prepare their field well in time for this most important crop that is also primary food staple for whole of the country.

The powerful millers have also been victimizing the farmers through delaying payments for long periods.The Sindh minister of agriculture has recently admitted that five sugar mills of the province owe one billion rupees to farmers.

The delay in crushing is also a potential threat for self-sufficiency in wheat. If wheat is not sown in time over large cultivatable areas presently occupied by the cane crop, the fear is that the country may not be able to produce enough wheat required for yearly consumption.

According to certain estimates the country produced less that 18 million tonnes of wheat in 2002-03 against official claims of 18.2 million tonnes. And that was because of late season sowing of wheat owing to similar delay by the sugar mills in crushing. Less production of wheat in year 2003-04 would force the government to import wheat in order to meet the growing demand of increasing populace.

The sugar economy of Pakistan is mired in a number of complexities. No doubt that certain problems faced by the millers are genuine as well and need proper redresses. But presently they seem to be interested in export of sugar; creating an artificial shortage in the country and making a big kill in the process. Such is their interest in export of the commodity that they are now suggesting to the government to levy Rs0.60 per kilograms excise duty on domestic sale to finance subsidized export. It is not hard to understand that who will bear the burden of this excise duty. None other than already burdened consumers.

While the steps for the protection of sugar industry are necessary, the interests of cane farmers must also be kept in mind at the same time. One fails to understand that what has been stopping the government from devising a comprehensive strategy to end this fiasco once and for all.

This situation that emerges every year at the start of the crushing season is threatening the livelihood of millions of poor countrymen. A long term and balanced approach is urgently needed to develop sugar industry, for the advantage of all the stakeholders i.e. industrialists, growers and consumers.

First, a fair pricing and regulatory mechanism is necessary to protect the growers’ interests. In case of sugar-cane prices, two mechanisms i.e. AOCOM and Sugar-cane Control Act of 1950 are used. This duality should also be changed with uniformity to curtail ad hocism and prices’ disparity in Sindh and Punjab. Secondly, strong enforcement for starting the crushing season in time is necessary.

For this, Sugar-cane Control Act 1950 should be updated and amended to make it responsive to the changing needs of time. Millers should also be made to pay the growers for their delivery within three to four weeks so that they can make their ends meet, particularly enabling them to buy essential inputs like fertilizers for the next crops.

Moreover, provincial governments should also consider giving relief to small growers by waving taxes like abyana on preferential basis for at least three years to help them cope with the losses already incurred. It is high time for both provincial and federal government functionaries involved with agriculture to evolve a national plan of action in this regard immediately. This is necessary to guard the growers from exploitation of powerful millers, who are trying to get maximum profits upon other’s resources and labours.