Growers’ woes: Farmers demand timely start of sugarcane crushing

Many mill owners did not start crushing just to purchase crop at low rates

SARGODHA: Farmers on Wednesday demanded of the Punjab government to ensure timely start of sugarcane crushing season by the sugar mills in Punjab and payment of fixed price announced by it for 2017-18.

Rai Farooq, a farmer, said the Punjab government had fixed sugarcane price at Rs180 per 40 kilogrammes for the current season, but mill owners were forcing the farmers to sell their yields at Rs160 per 40 kilogrammes. Many mills, he said, had not yet started crushing of the sugarcane as they were insisting to purchase the crop at low rate, which was unfair with the farmers. Another farmer Muhammed Qasim Dhudi said sugar mills, which had started the crushing season, were also not issuing Cane Purchase Receipts (CPRs) to the farmers. “Only unstamped chits containing weight details are given the farmer after the sell their crop to the mill owners,” he remarked.

He claimed that the sugar mills' administrations purchased sugarcane on the condition that they would make payment at the rate of Rs160 per 40 kilogrammes. “Delay in the starting crushing of sugarcane by some sugar mills would affect the cultivation process of wheat,” he said.

Sher Ali, another farmer, said the Punjab government had asked the sugar mills to start the crushing season from November 25 but they started crushing in December.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 10^th, 2017.