LAHORE: Sugarcane growers allege that sugar mills have begun exploiting them in the name of cane variety, as up to Rs22,000 per trailer is being deducted from their dues, or they are being paid less than the minimum support price in Punjab.

Kisan Bachao Tehreek chairman Chaudhry Yasin, Kisan Foundation head Syed Mahmood-ul-Haq Bukhari and Anjuman Tahaffuz-e-Kashtkaran chief Sardar Yaqub Sindhu in a joint statement on Sunday lamented that fertilizers, seed and sugar mafias are damaging the agricultural economy of the country.

They say that getting fed up with the exploitation by the millers, the growers had sown sugarcane on 625,000 acres this year, which is less than the last season’s figures. They feared that the cane acreage will further reduce in the coming season.

The farmers representatives alleged that Rehman Hajra Mills and Fatima Sugar Mills in Muzaffargarh, and Medina Sugar Mills, Kanjwani Sugar Mills and Chanar Sugar Mills in Faisalabad have started making deductions from the growers’ dues.

According to them, the production cost of sugarcane crop is not less than Rs0.4 million per acre and a deduction from the amount is tantamount to crushing the farmers.

They alleged that the mills managements are exploiting the growers on the pretext that they have mixed non-approved variety in their produce and refuse to buy it if the farmers don’t grease their palms.

They say that if the grower agrees to a price cut from 20 to 25 percent, then the same produce is accepted, otherwise the farmer has to sell his produce to the agents camping outside the mills who offer even lower rates, forcing them to again contact the mills and accept the lesser rate.

The farmers’ leaders say the variety issue had cropped up last year too and the then Cane Commissioner Hussain Bahadur had directed the additional cane commissioner and deputy commissioners of sugarcane producing districts to ensure that the mills pay full dues for the Jhang-59(NSG-59) variety because it had not been prohibited for cultivation. Three years ago, the then Punjab government had amended the Sugar Factories Act and introduced stiffer penalties for offences such as illegal deductions. The then cane commissioner Muhammad Zaman Wattoo had taken action against the violators of the Act, they said.

But, they regret, the millers with political clout pressurised the government to transfer Mr Wattoo and since then the sugar mills are blatantly exploiting the farmers. It is estimated that sugar mills deduct Rs15 billion to Rs20 billion from the farmers’ dues every year.

Mr Yasin claims that the millers are also using different tactics to indirectly bar the farmers from switching over to other crops like wheat, cotton, maize etc. He says that for the same purpose cane crushing had been started this year after the prime time for wheat sowing was over.

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2023