A crushing blow: Sugarcane crops that are ready rot as crushing season gets delayed

Agriculturists announce protest against mill owners

DI KHAN: The Chamber of Agriculture in DI Khan has decided to protest against the failure of sugar mill owners to start the sugarcane crushing season.  A meeting of the Chamber of Agriculture Dera declared December 7 as the day to register its protest and called on agriculturists and farmers to assemble at Haq Nawaz Park in DI Khan city. 

“Billions of rupees worth of sugarcane crops are ready and going to waste due to the delay in starting the crushing season,” said one of the participants at the meeting.

Cash crop

DI Khan is among the top cane growing districts in the province. According to Pakistan Sugar Mills Association’s website, four of eight mills in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa are in DI Khan. In a paper authored by Ghaffar Ali et al (2013), it is stated sugarcane is a major cash crop for the district and in Pakistan at large, the crop constitutes 0.8% of the GDP. K-P exports about 42,000 tonnes of sugarcane every year.



Caught between mills, govt

A Chamber of Agriculture Dera delegation held a meeting in November, with the deputy commissioner of the area. The official was briefed on the suffering of agriculturists and assured the farmers would not be exploited in any way. He said crushing season would start on November 28.

Haji Abdu Rashid Dap, who presided over the meeting, told the media that conferences had been held with the Dera commissioner, K-P food secretary and the provincial food minister. However, none of them yielded positive results and now people earning their livelihood through sugarcane have no choice but to protest.

In 2014, it was decided subsidies of Rs5 each per kg would be paid by the federal and provincial governments on the export of sugarcane. In Sindh and Punjab, the federal and provincial governments paid subsidies of Rs10 per kg.

However, the K-P government has yet to provide its share of the subsidy for this year, resulting in the reluctance of mills to start the crushing season.

“The issue is between mills owners and the provincial government, but it’s the farmers who are suffering,” he said. He warned the chamber would block the highway linking Quetta, Peshawar and Karachi. 

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6^th, 2015.