November 12, 2006	Sunday	Shawwal 19, 1427

LAHORE, Nov 11: The Punjab government has decided not to allow new sugar mills in the core cotton areas nor permit existing mills to expand their capacity as it would curtail cotton production.

Secretary Agriculture Punjab Fayyaz Bashir told Dawn that the policy had always been to discourage new mills in core cotton areas as it changed cropping pattern and expansion in mills came at the cost of the silver fibre - a vital foreign exchange earner for the country.He said though a debate was still going on within the government regarding the thrust of the policy divergent views expressed on the issue of freedom of choice to the farmers when deciding the next crop. "Many options are being debated, but current policy is to restrict construction of new mills in cotton areas".

He said one of the many options being debated was the introduction of new cane varieties that could yield three times more than of current varieties and had higher sucrose content. “If the government succeeds in doing so, there will be no need to impose restrictions on farmers’ choice”.

He said that the emerging situation had tempted more growers towards sugarcane especially in Rahim Yar Khan, which is at the centre of current controversy. Progressive farmers in the area use these new cane varieties for much higher yields, up to 850 maunds per acre on average against national average of 500 maunds. This lures farmers in sowing sugarcane crop which is also comparatively risk-free compared to cotton - more vulnerable to pest attack.

The introduction of a by-product - ethanol - has added to fiscal promise of cane crop, he said and added: "With petrol price rising and sustaining at a higher level for last many years, the ethanol oil has become a lucrative prospect for millers who are now ready to pay much more to cane farmers than they have traditionally been doing so. All these factors have gone in favour of cane crop that is eating into cotton areas."

The agriculture secretary said the general policy had always been to restrict sugar mills in cotton areas, but there had been many violations. Not only new mills were allowed to "influential" people but they were also allowed to increase capacity of existing mills.

“The responsibility rests with the district governments after the devolution plan, and they allowed new mills,” he remarked.

Now, the provincial government has formed a committee consisting of secretary agriculture and secretary industries to check growth of mills and scrutinise new applications. During the last few months, the committee has rejected many such applications coming from the core cotton area. The provincial government is sticking to this policy and at the same time also debating should it restrict farmers’ choice or help change ground realities by promoting new and better yielding varieties of cane, which should help spare more acres for cotton.

But, the core cotton belt would be protected to save crop from undue pressure, he promised.