THIS is with reference to the article ‘Moving beyond cane prices’ (B&F, July 20). As a sugarcane grower, I read it with great concern. Written by a sugar mill manager, the piece conveniently framed the agricultural crisis purely as a farmer’s failure to improve productivity, deflecting attention from the cartel-like environment that actively prevents us from doing so.

The write-up asked farmers to invest in precision agriculture and modern technology. It failed to mention how they were supposed to afford this when their profit margins have been entirely wiped away by skyrocketing prices of fertiliser, diesel and electricity. Furthermore, heavy government taxation and the removal of agricultural subsidies have generated a cost-price inversion that has left growers in a heavy debt.

We cannot modernise when the sugar industry consistently suppresses cane procurement prices and delays our payments to maximise its own corporate profits. Policymakers have to realise that fair support prices are not ‘redistributing value’. They are actually the only thing that is keeping the farmers afloat against crushing inflation.

If the government and sugar mills want technological innovation, they must first ensure the grower is paid a fair, timely price that covers the actual cost of production.

Mir Atta Muhammad Talpur
Mirpurkhas

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2026