The Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal), taking the provinces and the private sector on board, has proposed amendments to Sugar Factory Control Act for the benefit of sugarcane growers and millers.
A recent meeting of all stakeholders proposed amendments to sections relating to cane-crushing, payment to growers, fixation of minimum price, quality premium, and cess collection and utilisation.
The meeting, which was chaired by Federal Food, Agriculture and Livestock Minister Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan, was attended by Minfal Secretary Muhammad Ismail Qureshi, the Sindh agriculture secretary, the NWFP food secretary, and Sindh and Punjab cane commissioners.
The meeting also decided that mills should start sugarcane crushing not later than November 1 and close the mills as per notification of the provincial governments. It would help the timely sowing of Rabi crops.
It was also agreed to make cane purchase receipt (CPR) a negotiable instrument as proposed by Punjab, Sindh and NWFP. It would help in early recovery of the payment to the growers. If delayed more than 15 days, the provincial cane commissioners can penalise the millers.
Currently, the provinces are fixing minimum price for the sugarcane crop, but it was also agreed that the provinces might finalise the price of cane in consultation with the federal government.
The provinces should implement payment of quality premium to the growers as per the benchmark recovery ie 8.5 percent in Punjab, 8.7 percent in Sindh and 8.3 percent in NWFP. For this purpose, each mill should install core samplers for which matching grants would be provided to the mills from the sugarcane development cess fund by the provincial governments. The payment of quality premium would encourage the growers to sow better varieties of the cane having more sucrose.
The meeting also proposed 2 percent per 40-kg cess collection equally from the growers and millers. Currently, it is collected at the rate of Rs 0.50. The provinces would divert 25 percent of the cess for research and development of the sugarcane crop to bring vertical improvement in crop production.
Comments
Comments are closed.