Sugarcane rate: Farmers settle for Rs182 per maund

Agriculture minister holds meeting with farmers’ bodies

HYDERABAD: The farmers, after having unsuccessfully battled for years against the Sindh government and sugar mills, for sugarcane crop’s rate and the beginning of crushing season, seem to have relented this time.

After asking the government to fix Rs200 per maund for the crop, two leading organisations lobbying for the farmers have reluctantly settled for Rs182 per maund.

The capitulation, however, is argued to be premised on the consideration of preventing their community from suffering other associated losses than just that of the low price.

A meeting chaired by agriculture minister Suhail Anwar Siyal in Karachi on Friday decided the price and promised that crushing will start from November 15.

The Sugar Factories Control Act, 1950, stipulates that the government should fix the buying rate and ensure start of the cane crushing season from October 1 every year. But, in apparent violation of the law, both the rates and the crushing are notified late. The situation results in not only a less price for the crop but deferral in cane crushing also delays the sowing of wheat crop by a couple of months.

“We agreed to an extent that we will not go to the court on Rs182,” said Sindh Abadgar Board’s (SAB) Mehmood Nawaz Shah, referring to last year’s Rs172 rate, which they rejected and challenged in the Sindh High Court. “If we are to go to court, it will delay the crushing and like last year we will be left with nothing in hand.”

Shah saw another advantage in the assurance that the mills will fire their boilers from November 8, a week before the crushing starts. “Plus, if land is made free from sugarcane early, the small and medium size growers can sow wheat or some [other] Rabi crop like sunflower.”

Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) general secretary Nabi Bux Sathio told The Express Tribune that the minister informed them during the meeting that the millers are not ready to pay more than Rs178. “Fearful of the failed meeting in previous years, we knew that if we didn’t strike a bargain the government will issue a notification of Rs178,” he said.

The minister himself finally decided the price as both the SAB and SCA stuck to Rs200 and Rs190.

Both the SAB and SCA hope the development will not affect their petitions in court, which they filed against the Rs172 rate for 2015-2016.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 8^th, 2016.