November 12, 2006	Sunday	Shawwal 19, 1427

LAHORE, Nov 11: Since the government is literally hostage to the powerful sugar millers lobby, it cannot stop the present trend, says a progressive grower member of a federal advisory body on agriculture.

Requesting anonymity, he rejected official promises that more sugar mills would not be allowed in the cotton belt. "The government cannot withstand the PSMA and its ministers’ pressure”.

Besides Rahim Yar Khan, where two new more mills were in the process of being set up, he said plans were underway to establish as many mills in Muzaffargarh district. All the investors, he said, were either in the government or had links with those who mattered.

Recalling past, he said when a sugar mill in the public sector was set up in Pattoki some times in early 1970s, there was an outcry in that region that the mill would ultimately hit cotton cultivation in Okara and Sahiwal areas.

He said the government at that time had promised that more mills in the area would not be allowed. But the promise was not fulfilled as more and more mills were allowed in Okara, Sahiwal and Pakpattan. "The result is before everybody as cropping pattern in this region has changed altogether."

He said after the laying of Chashma Right Bank Canal, four mills were allowed in that region despite the opposition of some official circles as the area had the potential of giving Pakistan a big boost in cotton production. "Pakistan would have touched 20 million bales figure had the area along the CRBC come under cotton," he claimed, adding the land there was rich because of no cultivation for several decades in the absence of water.

He said since the mills were earning huge profits, nobody could stop them from setting up more mills or increasing the capacity of their exiting units.

Giving details of what the millers are earning, he said according to Minfal statistics (also accepted by the PSMA), the sugar price should not be more than Rs17 if the cane price is Rs45 per maund. He said in fact the sugar price did remain around Rs17 and Rs20 in the open market for several years when the cane price was Rs45 per maund.

He said when the cane support price was increased to Rs60 per maund, the millers doubled the sugar price. According to the agreed formula, he said, the sugar price in the current scenario should not have been more than Rs25 per kg.

"Such a huge are their returns that millers last year offered up to Rs100 per maund to cane farmers in some districts of Punjab," he said.

On the other hand, he said, Pakistan’s cotton production was on the decline for a variety of reasons but nobody at the helm of affairs was concerned.