The sugar crisis is inter-linked with shortage of water in the country, low yield of sugarcane, inadequate research, besides negative attitude of sugar mills, which will continue to haunt consumers during the next year if the government adopt a viable strategy to improve sugar industry.
Experts stated this while talking to this scribe at a cup of tea on Wednesday. They said the sugarcane is cultivating at million hectare of land being 5th largest in term of area providing job to 48,000 people directly while indirectly more than one million people.
They said among 78 sugar mills of country 71 are operational. Of them 32 in Sindh. Pakistan's total sugarcane production has been estimated 41 million tones, sugarcane processing 30 million tones, while capacity sugarcane is 60 million tones.
He pointed out that value of sugarcane works out at Rs 62 billion to Rs 71 billion and added that being tropical crop, it is the sole crop cultivatable in southern Sindh.
He further pointed out that Pakistan's consumption of sugar is about 3.90 million tones and added that if national requirements is met by imports it will cost more than one billion dollars per annum, but they claimed it is not an affordable economic proposition for our country.
He said that there was time that Sindh was producing 1.3 tons and Punjab was producing 1.1 tones while in the last year Sindh produced 7,000 tons sugarcane while Punjab produced 1.9 tons.
About the increase of sugarcane in the Punjab, increase in production of sugar cane in Punjab is due to availability of 70 percent underground water while in Sindh its underground water is insignificant.
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