LAHORE: Punjab has sown the sugarcane crop on 2.148 million acres for kharif 2021-22 exceeding the official target of 1.880m acres by over 14 per cent as more and more farmers being consistently hit by the failure of cotton are fast turning to alternative crops, reveals Crop Reporting Service (CRS) data.

CRS Director Dr Abdul Qayyum says sugarcane plantation target is being exceeded for the second consecutive year, though this season the sowing is 11pc more than the last season when the crop had been sown on 1.920m acres.

The sugarcane acreage may have been even higher had hybrid rice varieties not given a tough time to it.

Saying all factors are so far favouring a good harvest, Dr Abdul Qayyum hopes that the sugar production will be 26pc higher at 63.065 million tonnes against the target of 50m tonnes.

Around 75pc of the total sugarcane produce is usually crushed by the mills.

Farmers say repeated failure of cotton crop year after year in the south Punjab is making the growers look out for alternatives and they are finding cane as one of the best substitutes. Land under white lint has shrunk almost by half from 6.2m acres to 3.2m acres during the last few years.

“Cotton growers are facing losses for the last five years due to poor yield and rising cost of production. They find sugarcane as a better alternative because unlike white lint it doesn’t require much care, while it’s also guaranteeing good returns, at least for the last couple of years,” says Pakistan Kisan Ittehad President Khalid Khokhar.

Partially endorsing the views, Mr Qayyum tells Dawn: “Better prices of sugarcane crop during the last season convinced the growers to bring more area under the crop. In some cases they got Rs300 per maund for their produce against the minimum official support price of Rs200 per maund.”

Mr Khokhar, however, sounds a note of caution. “The growers may not get benefit of the better crop if cane crushing season is not started by the sugar mills in time, he adds, insisting that the crushing must begin by Nov 10 so that the farmers have ample time to supply their produce to the mills.

Punjab Cane Commissioner Muhammad Zaman Wattoo accepts that narrow window of crushing will put the growers at the mercy of the sugar millers. He says his office will request the government to order the beginning of the crushing season at least on the dates it started last year “between Nov 10 and 15”.

The meeting of the Sugar Advisory Board will be convened by September end, a month before the start of the crushing season as per tradition, to discuss the sugarcane minimum support price issue, he adds.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2021