August 26, 2007	Sunday	Sha’aban 12, 1428

KARACHI, Aug 25: Leaders of sugar industry have been summoned by the prime minister’s committee on inflation control on Thursday (Aug 30) to discuss commencement of sugarcane crushing from mid-October in Sindh and from November in Punjab and NWFP.

“The government is expecting to harvest a record bumper crop of sugarcane this season — 55 to 60 million tons — thanks to plenty of rains this monsoon,’’ a well-placed and authoritative source in the government said on Saturday.

He said the committee will discuss all relevant issues of the industry with millers that include fixing of procurement price in provinces, existing sugar stocks and possibility of importing sugar in raw or refined form sometimes in November when there is a fear of a “small gap in the demand and supply of sugar.’’

The source was confident of uninterrupted sugar supplies in all parts of the country during Ramazan next month.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz constituted a high-level committee early this month to work out a short and long-term strategy to counter rising inflation at a time when elections are to be held. The committee is headed by the federal industries and production minister Jehangir Tareen and includes the federal food and agriculture Minister Hayat Mohammad Bosan, the federal commerce minister Humayun Akhtar Khan, prime minister’s advisor on finance Salman Shah, deputy chairman of the planning commission Dr Akram Sheikh, the governor of State Bank of Pakistan Dr Shamshad Akhtar and the federal finance secretary Dr Ashfaq Hasan Khan.

The committee has finalised its work and is expected to give its report to the prime minister soon which will be discussed in the next Economic Coordination Committee meeting.

“One of the decisions of the committee is to build up government stocks of pulses,’’ the source revealed.

It is for the first time that the government will be building stocks of pulses, to be procured domestically in event of good crop and import it when there are shortages.

“The idea is to help farmers in event of a good crop and also serve consumers from buffer stocks of pulses,’’ he said.

One of the significant findings of the committee is to support farmers and provide them knowledge and information on improvement in production and crop management techniques, cost-effectiveness by way of use of fertiliser, good seeds and all other inputs.

Farmers, when contacted, expressed their surprise as to how the committee overlooked the most important factor which is bank credit.

The chairman of the committee, Jehangir Tareen, in one of his reports for State Bank of Pakistan found out that 70 per cent of farmers do not have access to bank credit.

They rely on informal sector for credit which is made available to them on 120 to 130 per cent interest rate.

The State Bank of Pakistan in its report found that share of Sindh and Balochistan has dropped drastically in the total agricultural bank credits of the country during the last five years because small farmers of two provinces do not have title of the land they own and hence are not entitled to pass books of the banks.

The Board of Revenue of Sindh does not enjoy a good reputation as it serves interests of feudals in rural areas and real estate barons in the cities.

“Unless small farmers are given title of the land, and unless the government distributes land among landless farmers and all such small farmers are given access to bank credits, there can be no improvement in rural prosperity,’’ said a farmer from Dadu on telephone.

The source said fixing of a procurement price on crop has helped only big farmers.

With government’s help, if small farmers improve their production techniques and manage their crop well with fertiliser, quality seed and other input, they are bound to reduce cost of production. This will bring profit to farmers and provide relief to consumers.

He said provinces are now fixing procurement price of sugarcane without giving any consideration to many other factors.

This season, he said, the federal cane commissioner is visiting every province to discuss procurement price of sugarcane and the idea is to fix it in consultation with the federal and provincial governments.

The government expects a surplus sugar production in the current fiscal year which will enable it to build up a buffer sugar stock.