Pakistan has successfully achieved sugarcane production target as 55 million tonnes of sugarcane production has been recorded across the country, officials at Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MinFA) told Business Recorder. Officials revealed that those areas, which were not affected by the floods yet benefited from increased rainfall last year recorded 55 million tonnes of sugarcane output.
Thus sugarcane output increased significantly due to substantial yield gains in non-flood areas. According to Minfa estimates, areas that were affected by floods suffered a loss of Rs 40 billion with respect to sugarcane output. Last year, the government fixed sugarcane production target at 55 million tonnes, but later on reduced the production target to 49 million tonnes.
However, officials maintained that sugarcane cultivation in Pakistan is not competitive compared to other crops like sugarbeet, cotton, rice and wheat, as the crop is suitable for tropical regions while Pakistan is a sub-tropical region. Officials urge Pakistani farmers to cultivate sugarbeet instead of sugarcane, which requires large quantity of water while the water level in Pakistan has decreased significantly. Studies conducted by agriculture institutes and researchers prove that Pakistan has a competitive advantage to produce sugarbeet, which would not only enable the country to meet local sugar demand, but its surplus output could be exported.
Sugarbeet contributes about 20% to world sugar production, with sugarcane contributing 80%. The sucrose level in sugarbeet is about 11 percent compared to 9 percent in sugarcane. The entire country is suitable for the cultivation of sugarbeet and climatic conditions of lower Sindh and some parts of Punjab are particularly favourable to the crop-conditions similar to Nile delta valley of Egypt, where commercial sugarbeet production has been successful for many years, official added.
In Pakistan, sugarbeet is being cultivated in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) since the mid-sixties. Majority of the Pakistani farmers are not using good quality sugarcane seeds, sources added. The sugarcane growers should use latest sugarcane seeds with high recovery level but they are cultivating high yield varieties because the millers are paying them in terms of weight not on the basis of recovery level, officials added.
The price of the commodity should be linked with the recovery level in sugarcane instead of weight as this will help farmers to earn more from their crop as well as produce more sugar which would help reduce Pakistan's import bill on sugar.
Officials maintained that despite the fact that Pakistan was among the leading sugarcane producers in the world, yet during the last few years it had faced a sugar shortage. Pakistan needs to increase sugar production from sugarbeet in the wake of serious water shortages in the country.
They said that all the other Kharif Crops are not replaceable, but sugarcane could easily be replaced with sugarbeet, which would help maximise land use and consumes less water compared to sugarcane. One sugarcane crop needs water 30 times while sugarbeet crop needs water only 8 times.
The official said that the Ministry recommended new hybrid sugarbeet seeds so that per acre production could be increased, adding that per hectare sugarcane output is about 500 maunds while sugarbeet per hectare output is 600 maunds. Sugarcane is the main source of sugar production in the country and the industry is entirely dependent on the availability of sugarcane whereas the crop is a high delta crop, notorious for its lavish water use and occupies land for 12 months in Punjab and 18 months in Sindh. If Pakistani farmers begin cultivating sugarbeet it has a comparative advantage as it is a low delta crop and occupies land for 4-5-months.
The government would provide incentives to farmers of sugarbeet for the promotion of sugar production from sugarbeet in the wake of declining sugarcane production in the country and water shortages faced by the cane growers. According to the official figures, Pakistan faced 1.2 million tonnes of sugar shortage in 2010 and the gap was filled through imports. The sugarcane production in Kharif season this year was 47.22 million tonnes compared to 50 million tonnes last year, while the cane cultivation area declined from 1.02 million hectares last year to 949,000 hectares in Kharif 2009-10.