FAISALABAD:
An unusually long row over sugarcane prices this year is likely to result in a dramatic decrease in wheat production in some parts of central Punjab, according to farmers who spoke with The Express Tribune.
Growers in Punjab complain that, because the Punjab government and the sugar mills have been unwilling to set a price the farmers are willing to accept, the sowing of the wheat crop will have to move from November to December, a suboptimal time for sowing the country’s staple grain. Some farmers claim that the reduction in per acre yields of next year’s wheat crop could be as high as 40%.
“I have to cultivate wheat and for that purpose I want to free my land from sugarcane. Sowing wheat later has poorer yields on average. Planting the crop in November is better than planting in December. But this year, we have not been able to sow in November and may have as much as a 40% reduction in yield for wheat,” said Arshad Chattha, a farmer in the Faisalabad area.
The dispute between sugarcane farmers and sugar mill owners is not new and takes place every year. Sugar mill owners frequently delay their purchasing in order to force the farmers to mark down the price of their crop.
In theory, the provincial governments are meant to assist farmers by announcing a minimum price that the sugar mills must pay. The mills are also required to undergo a “cost audit” in addition to the normal financial audit every year. Yet this mechanism does not always result in solutions that the farmers are happy with.
The price set by the Punjab government this year is Rs150 per 40 kilograms (Rs3.75 per kilogram). Farmers, however, are demanding at least Rs5 per kilogram, claiming that their expenses have shot up by 35% this year compared to a comparable period last year.
Many are particularly peeved at the fact that this year’s price is lower than last year’s Rs7 per kilogram. Critics, however, argue that last year’s price was unusually high due to a sugarcane shortage. The growers, however, are not content.
“The Punjab government’s price of sugarcane cannot be rationally justified. Meanwhile, the mill owners are earning huge profits,” said Ahmad Nawaz, another sugarcane grower.
Growers complain that the costs of transportation in particular have gone up due to higher diesel prices in addition to higher labour rates and other overhead expenses.
Farmers are particularly irked by what they perceive as a highly manipulative practise by sugar mill owners: forcing the farmers to wait for several weeks after the harvest – during which time the sucrose content of the sugarcane becomes harder and harder to extract – and then bidding low prices for the sugarcane, claiming that it is of a low quality.
In many years, growers have responded to what they view as the millers’ manipulation by not growing sugarcane at all.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 8th, 2011.
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