MUZAFFARGARH: Sugar mills in the district have refused 12 types of cane varieties from the mills premises.

Farmers, who already faced losses due to the late start of the crushing season, say the mills have never notified them about such varieties.

The district government administration, on its part, is taking action against brokers and private buyers who had set up centres along several roads.

Deputy Commissioner Dr Ehtasham Anwar said he had ordered assistant commissioners to leave their offices and check private buying centres by themselves. The government has fixed the price of sugarcane at Rs180 per 40 kilo.

Farmers, however, faced a setback after mills’ refusal to buy the 12 varieties just with the inception of the crushing season.

The banned varieties are NSG 59, US 272, US 658, SP 238, AUS 133, SP 93, US 133, US 127, US 778, AUS 138, CSSG 676, and 302/235.

This announcement is forcing the farmers to contact brokers to sell their crop of such seed variety.

Farmers said the brokers were ready to buy their rejected crop at low rates, and these brokers would ultimately sell the rejected lot to the mills. They said they had already missed wheat sowing season because of the late start of the crushing season, and now the rejection of 12 varieties was the harshest blow to them by the millers.

A few private buyers told Dawn they would buy the rejected lot and later mix it with the approved varieties before reaching the mills premises.They admitted that some mills officials were involved in the scheme to force the farmers to sell their crop at low rates of Rs140 per 40 kg.

Cane was cultivated on 125,000 acres this year in the district.

A broker said the cane crop was short of the standard weight and juice quality this time because of low rains.

Dawn learned Tandliawala Sugar Mills’ officials were busy bargaining with brokers but Chief Accountant Mohammad Yunis said that strict action would be taken against the officials involved in such practices.

A district government official said the district government would get cases registered against mills owners if they were found buying cane from private buyers. He said the mills had been told to buy the crop against ready cash.

The Haseeb Waqas Sugar Mills in Jatoi has yet to release outstanding dues to the farmers.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2018