SWABI: Sugarcane crushing season is in full swing across the district, which is famous for producing best quality gur (jaggery).

Growers said that the sugarcane was a cash crop and those who once grew it didn’t revert to any other crop, especially tobacco which is very expensive and has very complicated and lengthy production process.

They said that gur fetched them handsome amounts once it was shipped to the market as its use got enhanced during winter. They said that they could also store the commodity for late sale unlike the tobacco which couldn’t be stored. Due to these benefits, most farmers have switched from growing tobacco to sugarcane.

Some of the growers this reporter met during a visit to the sugarcane growing fields said that they wanted to complete the crushing as soon as possible. They said that the farmers who would complete sugarcane crushing and gur making before the expected rainfall would be lucky as demand for the commodity was already very high in the market.

The best quality gur could be sold at Rs400 per five kilograms, which is much expensive than the refined sugar, said Aftab Khan, a farmer from Gohati village. But, he added that most people in the district used gur instead of sugar. He said that tea prepared with gur was rich in taste and thickening.

The growers said that constant use of gur protected people from contracting dangerous disease like diabetic. They disclosed that use of gur after lunch or dinner helped end boredom.

They said that though rain was direly needed for sowing wheat crop, it was undesirable because it would affect the sugarcane crushing and gur making process. “The gur making remains stopped in rain because baking of sugarcane juice becomes difficult,” said Nural Zaman of Pirtab.

The farmers said that when they grew tobacco they remained at the mercy of tobacco purchasing companies, but since they were growing sugarcane, they were at ease selling gur and earning their livelihood honourably.

The growers said that compared to past, they were finding it easy to crush sugarcane with using a tractor as opposed to the use of bollocks.

“The application of tractor instead of bollocks has made our task very easy because we could complete a lot of work in a short span of time,” said Abdul Qayyum Khan of Maneri Bala village.

Published in Dawn January 12th , 2014

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