MUZAFFARGARH: Given the attractive rates being offered for gurr (jaggery ) in the open market, up to Rs7,000 to Rs8,200 per 40 kilograms, many sugarcane farmers are opting for manufacturing the commodity for earning good handy profits, instead of selling their yields to sugar mills, that mostly subject them to exploitation and humiliation.

While the government had announced the start of cane crushing season from November 21, none of the three sugar mills in the district comply with the direction. Only Hajra Rehman Tandlianwala Sugar Mills has announced buying sugarcane from Dec 2 (today), while two others -- Fatima Sugar Mills and Sheikhu Sugar Mills -- did not announce the crushing date so far.

Agriculture department official says that this season sugarcane crop has been cultivated on more than 0.4 million acres in the district and most of the growers have set up Gurr-making units in their fields, instead of selling their produce to sugar mills after waiting in long queues or getting exploited by their agents.

Instead, the farmers can sell jaggery immediately in the market at a good rates.

Many of the farmers prefer selling their yield to sugar mills in other districts, including Jhang, as they were buying it at the officially-announced price of Rs400 per 40kg.

In Muzaffarrgarh district, only Tandlianwala Sugar Mills has announced official cane price for the growers, while the managements of two other mills say that they will announce the rate with the start of crushing, according to the crop variety.

Many locals have also set up mobile jaggery units, running 24/7, and producing a large quantity of gurr. The gurr mills, running on diesel engines, extract sugarcane juice, mostly employing six people working in shifts for the process.

The owners of these mills keep one-fourth of the gurr produced by them as manufacturing cost and the remaining quantity goes to the farmer.

As per a survey conducted by Dawn, such mills are operating in different mouzas of Muzaffargarh and Kot Addu tehsils, producing up to 60 to 70 maunds of jaggery from one acre of the sugarcane field.

Traders in Muzaffargarh grain market confirmed that this year the supply of jaggery had increased manifolds as compared to the last year’s. They say last year they had bought gurr for Rs3,000 to Rs4,000 per 40kg, but this year the price has almost doubled, making it more profitable for the cane growers.

Many farmers had started manufacturing jaggery in the start of November when rates are higher as the product was supplied to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

Talking to Dawn, many farmers who had opted for jaggery production instead of selling their crop to sugar mills, said it saves them from exploitation by sugar mills’ agents and provide them with handy cash.

They say that they can either sell their jaggery in the open market or store it for sale at a suitable time, when the prices soar.

The district administration sources say that sugar mills usually start buying cane in the first week of December and hire agents who exploit the growers by offering them immediate cash out side the units, but pay them lower rates.

On the other hand, the farmers lament that though their in-put costs like of fertilisers, fuel prices and electricity bills had increased manifolds, while the sugarcane rates have not risen for the last two years.

Published in Dawn, December 2nd, 2024