Sugarcane growers are once again in a quandary as they are, in many cases, not able to get officially fixed price of sugarcane of Rs172 per 40kg from the mills. Sugar factory owners say prices differ for different varieties. The issue of supply of unapproved or discarded variety is another concern for them.

But growers insist that since they are not cultivating unapproved varieties, the question of supplying the same simply should not arise.

The controversy between cane producers and sugar mills has become a perennial problem for farmers, with growers on the losing end. Ultimately they look towards middlemen to supply their cane to get timely payment of money to go for summer crop sowing.

Cash flows have to be smooth for growers to cultivate back-to-back summer and winter crops and sowing at the right time to get maximum yield per acre. The Kharif season follows the closure of sugar mills. For cultivation of major crops of rice and cotton, the growers need money. Cash-strapped farmers depend on informal lenders or banks. With payments stuck up, growers are quite often forced to bargain with mills’ management over price and eventually often get a lesser rate for crop regardless of the government’s notified rate.

Cartelisation of mill owners, often a part of the government or close to the corridors of power, denies a fair price for cane to farmers. The Sindh government has kept the last year’s cane price of Rs172 per 40kg for this season too, despite the fact that the provincial agriculture minister had announced the rate of Rs180 in October 2013. The price was announced after consultation with sugar mills owners but the growers later boycotted the meeting in protest as they were demanding Rs200 of per 40kg of cane. The millers’ representatives, had disagreed even on the rate of Rs172.

The Sindh government notified the date of crushing season but it avoided notifying the sugarcane rate in view of the millers’ insistence to keep last year’s rate unchanged. Growers were left with no option but to start supplying cane after issuance of price notification of Rs172 per 40kg by the agriculture department.

“Factory owners create a situation in which an ordinary cane producer is unable to press for payment at official price. Since they are hard pressed to go for sowing of Kharif crops, they need money to meet cultivation expenses of next crop. Therefore they settle for price less than fixed by government”, argues Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) Nabi Bux Sathio.

“In fact millers also involve middlemen as growers have to dispose their crop. Thus, they incur financial losses in terms of deduction on overall weight of crop in backdrop of controversy over approved or non approved varieties”, says vice president Sindh Abadgar Board Mahmood Nawaz Shah. According to him, 40 per cent of total sugarcane crop is subjected to deduction with varying percentage of price cuts ranging from 10 to 40 per cent. “It is only 60 per cent of the crop that is free of deduction”, he informs.

Sindh government did ban a few varieties like Nia98 and Disco 20.4360 a few years back but following a meeting between millers and growers’ representatives their cultivation were allowed for a period of three years that expired last year. Farmers representatives contend that there would hardly be a few landowners who might still be cultivating these crops. But deduction on crop’s weight or in price continues without any check.

A sugarcane producer from Tando Mohammad Khan, Dr Roshan Khoso points out how sugar mill of his area is making payment to him for cane under cash code number of someone else whom he doesn’t know. “If I insist that my crop be bought under my own cash code number enlisted in the mills, I am asked to wait for at least one to two months. Since I need finances for next crop I agree to their term and get Rs165 within two to three days against of Rs172 per 40kg. So I incur a loss of Rs7 on per 40 kg of cane”, he says.

Farmers claim that in some cases even liabilities of last cane season are either not cleared or they are provided sugar in the ratio of Rs50.50. They sell it to trader for Rs46.50, incurring Rs4.50 loss per kg or Rs180 per 40kg of sugar despite fact that at the time of getting cane, some mills had promised to make payment at the rate of Rs204 per 40kg due to competition then.