Sugarcane cultivation area shrinking continuously

Supply of tube well water has decreased due to power shortage.

ISLAMABAD: Meeting sugar consumption needs in the country could become a problem as the sugarcane cultivation area is going down year after year, say officials during the annual meeting of the Federal Committee on Agriculture (FCA).

They told the FCA – the highest forum for discussing agriculture issues that sets commodity targets for next year – that due to persistent shortage of electricity, the supply of tube well water had considerably decreased. This has led to the shrinking of planting area, which is being utilised for the sowing of maize crop.

“It needs to be considered that the demand for sugar compared to maize is a lot higher, and if there is a difficulty in cultivating sugarcane now, it will be harder to meet it in a couple of years,” said a working paper submitted to the FCA meeting.

According to the paper, weighing less than the actual weight, price reduction due to quality issues and exploitation by middlemen are the inherent problems faced by sugarcane farmers.

At present, the sugarcane growers and sugar industrialists have conflicting interests. Growers consider the price of sugarcane low while industrialists have the opposite stance and a number of petitions have been filed by sugar mills against the indicative price announced by provincial governments.

The FCA fixed the sugarcane production target for 2015-16 at 68.03 million tons from an area of 1.14 million hectares, compared to last year’s production of 63.94 million tons from an area of 1.12 million hectares.

Sugarcane is one of the major cash crops of Pakistan. In terms of area, it ranks fourth while in terms of production it comes at fifth place. In productivity per acre, it has 10th position in the country.

Pakistan Sugar Mills Association Chairman Sikandar Khan called on the government to facilitate farmers by improving sugarcane yield instead of increasing the support price.

“To support the growers, the government-fixed price should be linked with the recovery of the amount,” he said, suggesting that the subsidy should be given directly to the growers than the mill owners.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 5^th,  2015.

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