Punjab millers asked to ensure timely cane crushing, payments to growers

LAHORE: The Punjab government has geared up for timely start of sugarcane crushing season this year coupled with payments to sugarcane growers in a transparent and time-bound manner during upcoming harvesting.

For the last several years, farmers have to suffer a loss due to delayed launching of sugarcane crushing season by influential sugar mill owners. The crushing season should start by mid-November, but it gets delayed for prolonged periods for last many years. Powerful millers, while using it as leverage for pressurising the government for acceptance of their demands on one pretext or the other, used to inflict huge financial losses on farmers. Hence, farming community always protests against such tactics. However, their grievances are usually not addressed as far as early start of crushing season is concerned.

According to farmers, since sugarcane is a perishable commodity, it must be bought in a timely manner for early processing after harvest. Owing to unwarranted delay in reaping of sugarcane due to late start of crushing season, farmers face one serious problem that is reduction in weight of produce due to moisture loss.

However, it is learnt, Punjab government is determined to arm-twist sugar mill owners for start of crushing by first week of November this year. To achieve this goal, provincial government revised rules concerned and already enhanced interaction with the stakeholders. The meeting of cane board has been scheduled to be held on September 3, to streamline issues relating to timely start of sugarcane crushing season. The government has successively asked sugar mill owners to sort out issues, if any, with the government well in time.

The basic aim of revising rules by the provincial government was to ensure timely payments to farmers in a transparent manner on account of sugarcane sale, said Wajid Ali Shah, director food Punjab, who also acts as cane commissioner.

Owing to no regulation on sugarcane purchasing agent, there is no check on buying and selling of farmers’ produce. Such informal and undocumented sale of sugarcane is detriment to the interest of helpless growers. The agent was scot free as nothing was mandatory for creating a balance in sugarcane purchase.

To issue a cane purchase receipt (CPR) to farmers or not to, depends on the agent’s will. Almost everything was out of the books—right from buying sugarcane on behalf of sugar mills to manufacturing sugar and storing it for later sale.

These stocks were used to manipulate market forces, providing a leverage to sugar mill owners for dictating terms on account of disposal of sugar with the help of government subsidy either for exports or buying by the government, he said.

As per earlier practice, purchasing agent was supposed to only submit Rs1,000 security to sugar mill. However, now government made it mandatory for purchasing agent to pay Rs10 million to cane commissioner.

By introducing this condition, the government ensures to check the worth of the agent, plus this move would ensure that the farmer gets paid even in case where the agent defaults, the cane commissioner said.

More importantly, he added, the government has now made purchasing agent liable to make all payments to the farmers through the banks. “By doing so, not only timely payments can be ensured but all record of transactions would be available electronically,” he added.

These interventions would also ensure that the government knows the purchased quantity, as well as the price and information regarding the seller, which would minimise extortion. All these changes have been made in the rule twelve of Punjab Sugar Factories Rules 1950.

“We will increase interaction with the mills with the sole purpose of ensuring implementation of rules in letter and spirit,” he said, adding this was aimed to protect the interests of sugarcane growers. The present government has ensured payment of more than 99.7 percent of past dues to sugarcane growers till now.

Pakistan is the world’s fifth largest producer of sugarcane and the eighth largest producer and consumer of sugar. Sugarcane is grown on approximately 1.2 million hectares and provides the raw material for 90 sugar mills. The sugar industry is the country’s second largest agriculture-based industry after textiles.