LAHORE, Nov 13: Governor Khalid Maqbool announced on Wednesday the minimum support price of Rs40 per 40kg for sugarcane and the beginning of its crushing season from Friday (Nov 15).
He made the announcement while presiding over a meeting here at the Governor’s House.
The crushing season would last till Nov 22 during which all sugar mills in the province would remain operative.
A demand by sugar mills owners to allow less rates for the 24 per cent of the total sugarcane crop, claimed to have been affected by a new disease, was rejected as the agriculture department officials contested the claim. They also reportedly said that this would allow room for less payment even to the farmers selling good quality sugarcane.
The governor warned that the mills which had not yet deposited their sugar cess would have to pay fine with the principal amount.
He directed the DCOs to also include genuine farmers in the sugar cess committees for its accurate collection and equitable usage.
He said the provincial government would spend Rs950 million of the sugar cess on development schemes through the district governments this year. The amount was Rs400 million last year which never surpassed the figure of Rs150 million during the past many years because of the non-payment of the cess by most sugar mills owned mainly by influential politicians.
The governor said because of the presence of Rs8 billion 417,000 tons of surplus sugar in the country the province would ask the federal government to increase its export limit from 100,000 to 200,000 tons.
He said Afghanistan and some other friendly countries were desirous of buying sugar from Pakistan.
He said the government would protect the genuine interests of small growers, sugar industry and consumers, terming the better production of four major crops in the province despite shortage of water a good omen.
The governor said like the wheat and cotton the government make all efforts for the sale of sugarcane at adequate price in the market. It would also ensure timely payment to the growers by the sugar mills.
He expressed his satisfaction over the payment of sugarcane price to 99.46 per cent of the growers by the mill owners.
The meeting decided to empower tehsil supervisory committees to check weigh bridges outside the sugar mills instead of the officials of the provincial cane commissioner’s office. The private sector had already been authorized to issue licences for these bridges.
The governor said that the mud sugar should be used to produce fertilizers in addition to its usage as fuel for the brick kilns. He said the government would encourage establishment of the fertilizer production units.
He said the government would ensure availability of the required potassium sulphate, which sugarcane sucks the most form the soil, for kharif crops.
He urged farmers to get their soil analyzed from the agriculture department laboratories so as to determine cultivation of suitable crops.