THERE are clear indications that many sugarcane growers, in a fit of desperation, are switching over to the maize crop knowing well that they are ditching one of the country’s major cash crops.

Their desperation comes from the outright refusal by mill owners to pay them the officially notified price and the situation in Sindh is being aggravated by unending deadlock. The annual meeting of the Agriculture Policy Institute (API), an attached department of the federal ministry of food security and research, held on February 25, was of the consensus that sugarcane will be replaced by maize crop in the coming years if the issues facing cane growers were not resolved to their satisfaction.

The API meeting was attended by representatives of growers from Sindh and Punjab and Trading Corporation of Pakistan and Pakistan Sugar Mills Association.

A locally developed, high yielding hybrid maize seed , which is much cheaper than imported varieties, may open up a fresh avenue for farmers to shift from cane to maize cultivation for better returns. In Punjab the area under maize has increased significantly in recent years.

The persisting problems of cane growers include unjust and delayed payments by sugarmills to farmers, prolonged shortage of electricity, resulting in reduced use of tubewell water and shrinking of the area under sugarcane cultivation. The area, already given up is being used for maize crop. Problems like flawed weight, non-payment of premium for quality produce and exploitative role of the middleman are other reasons contributing to the growers’ plight

‘There is a visible divide between the federal and Sindh governments in respect of their stance on the lingering controversy between the sugar mill owners and cane growers’

Calls for abandoning sugarcane crop are on the rise. The latest to join is a leading agriculturist and MNA belonging to the ruling party in Sindh who, while addressing growers holding a sit-in outside a sugar mill in Tando Mohammad Khan, asked them to stop growing sugarcane if sugarmills were unwilling to accept their genuine demands. There was no need, he told them, to ‘waste time, money and efforts to grow cane if the mills were not paying you the right price and it was better to cultivate other crops’.

Here it may be noted that there is a visible divide between the federal and Sindh governments in respect of their stance on the lingering controversy between the sugar mill owners and cane growers. The centre is critical of the millers’ stubborn attitude and sympathetic towards growers and wants settlement of their differences on the price issue to the satisfaction of the farmers. Sindh government is taking side of the mill owners but would not say so publicly.

Federal minister for national food security and research, Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan, while holding a meeting with representatives of some cane growers’ bodies on February 24, was unambiguous in accusing the Sindh government of having failed to protect the rights of the farmers in the province. He said the government of Sindh was ‘playing terribly unjust’ with sugarcane growers by giving priority to ‘stakes of few sections’ (meaning a few mill owners) instead of growers. He asked the provincial government to revise its decision and direction by avoiding ‘partial thoughts’ It was amazing to observe a difference in prices prevailing in upper Sindh and lower Sindh which went against the rights and interests of growers. The federal minister made it clear that he would not ‘sit silent’ as the Sindh government has decided to deprive the farmers of their rights.

Meanwhile, at a meeting called by Sindh chief minister on February 24, growers’ representatives made it clear that they will not agree to any price less than the officially notified price of Rs182 per 40 kg as millers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab were already paying Rs180 to their growers. They were of the view that since there was no restraining order of the apex court, where their case is being heard, the millers should come forward and start paying the official price which nobody could legally deny them.

During the meeting, vice-president of Sindh Abadgar Board pointed out that most of the growers felt that the government was conniving with millers to deny them the notified price. The CM was quick to refute such an impression, saying that the amended price notification of Rs155 was withdrawn by his government immediately. He admitted that ‘the matter was somewhat mismanaged’ by the agriculture department when it issued the second notification to reduce price to Rs155 from Rs182. (It is generally believed that the revised price of Rs155 per 40 kg was notified at the behest of a strong political lobby of sugar mill owners.)

According to figures released by the MNFSR, sugarcane production from the current year’s crop has declined by 5.2pc to 63m tons against the target of 65m tons. The shortfall in area of sowing in Punjab and Balochistan was the principal reason for the decline. Overall, in terms of area the decline was 4.1pc, and in terms of yield 1.1pc. The most significant decline was recorded in Punjab where area under cultivation declined by 9.6pc and, as a result of that, production also declined by 9.1pc.

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, March 9th, 2015

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