The sugar crisis would continue to haunt consumers next year following the sugarcane production shortfall by around 35 percent in Sindh during the years 2004 and 2005, according to statistics of Sindh Agriculture Department.
The area under cane cultivation in the province indicates decline since 2003 and in 2004 it recorded a decline of 17.33 percent as compared to last year and during 2005 it has also recorded a decline of 17 percent, which means that during these two years the decline in area under sugarcane cultivation was 34.33 percent.
This decline is attributed to various reasons; poor availability of water, minimum support price of sugarcane which has remained static for last four years; delay in payment to growers of their produce and inordinate delay in the crushing season.
Under section 8 of Sugarcane Control Act 1950, the sugar mill owners are under obligation to resume crushing during the month of October but they are violating the rule with immunity with the result that the growers face serious blow to their cropping system, as they could not evacuate land under sugarcane crop for timely sowing of wheat, the main staple food, resulting in steep shortfall of wheat production and leading to severe price hike of the commodity in the province.
Even at a recent meeting held in Karachi under the chairmanship of Sindh agriculture secretary and attended by the growers and sugar mill owners, the millers succeeded in extending the crushing date to between November 15 to 20 by orchestrating that they are not getting a profit of margin over their cost of production and running in losses. But the surprising element is that if the cane crushing units are running in losses then why are they adding more units into their folds.
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