HYDERABAD, Jan 6: The Sugarcane Growers’ Association (SGA) has demanded magisterial powers for the Sindh cane commissioner to ensure the implementation of law.
The demand was made by the SGA general secretary, MNA Syed Qurban Ali Shah, while talking to this correspondent.
Commenting on the high-level meeting, held in Karachi on Saturday to resolve the crisis faced by the sugarcane growers, Shah said that sugar mill owners and growers had agreed that except for Nawabshah, Naushahro Feroze and Khairpur districts, the sugar mills would pay Rs43 per 40kg of sugarcane to growers.
The sugar mills of the above three districts would pay Rs40 per 40kg of sugarcane to growers but they would pay the remaining three rupees after two months, he said.
He said that the mill owners had asked for a loan of Rs3.5 billion from the State Bank to resolve their immediate problems.
The president, Sindh Chamber of Agriculture, Syed Qamaruzzaman Shah, hoped that decisions, taken in the meeting, would be implemented as the Sindh chief minister was taking personal interest in the matter.
However, some growers said that it was easy to take a decision but difficult to implement it. The past experiences had shown that the decisions, taken in this regard, had never been implemented, they added.
They pointed out that the meeting, convened by the federal minister for industries and production, Liaquat Jatoi, on Dec 17 in Karachi, which was also attended by the representatives of the sugar mills, had also resolved that sugar mills would start the sugarcane crushing immediately and pay Rs43 per 40kg of sugarcane to growers. However, sugar mills had refused to abide by the decision.
Due to the failure of the government to enforce its writ, sugarcane growers of Sindh, especially small growers, had reached a precipice, growers said.
According to them, if immediate steps are not taken to operate the mills and bound them down to pay the government rate to the growers, the crop may be used as firewood because growers are determined not to sell the crop below the fixed price of Rs43 per 40kgs.
According to the relevant law, sugar mills should start the crushing season by Oct 15, subject to a notification by the government.
The Sindh government had notified that the crushing season must start by Nov 15 and when sugar mills defied the notification, the government threatened to prosecute the mill owners.
However, cases against only three out of 27 sugar mills in Sindh were registered in Nawabshah.
Prior to the Saturday’s meeting, sugar mills of lower Sindh refused to pay beyond Rs40 per 40kg whereas those of upper Sindh refused to pay beyond Rs36 per 40 kg, the last year’s price.
The growers’ associations struck back by withholding the sugarcane supply and the situation reached a point of no return.
The crisis, if remained unresolved, can lead to lower sugar production in Sindh, due to which the government could have to import sugar to meet local requirement.
The sugar mill owners argue that they have a huge stock of sugar, which must be disposed of before starting the new crushing season.
Meanwhile, sugarcane crop has proved a double-edged sword for the growers. They are not only being offered lower rates by sugar mills but due to the delay in the crushing season, wheat sowing has also been delayed.
The wheat crop is sown on the same land after the sugarcane crop is harvested. The season for sowing the wheat crop ends on Dec 15, which has already ended, and the sugarcane crop is yet to be harvested.
According to the Sindh Abadgar Board, a leading growers’ organisation, the wheat crop could not have been cultivated over half a million acres of land due to the inordinate delay in the commencement of sugarcane crushing season.
This means that the country is also heading towards a crisis of wheat, which the country has begun exporting.
The growers have already threatened to switch over to other corps and this is not mearly a threat as the sugarcane production is already on the decrease.
If that happens, the mills will be left with nothing to crush.