Sugar ban lift by Pak not of much help for Punjab

Pakistan's recent decision to lift the ban on sugar import from India is no music to the ears of farmers in Punjab because of low sugarcane cultivation, resulting in low sugar production in the sugar mills.

Keeping in mind the geographical status of Punjab, which borders Pakistan, the state would have been benefited had the state government promoted the cultivation of sugarcane as part of its efforts at diversifying from the wheat-paddy cycle

The state government's attitude can be judged from the fact that in spite of 22 mills of the state having the capacity to produce 52,000 tonnes per day, the mills are working at much lower capacity due to lack of sugarcane.

To meet the requirements of sugar mills, sugarcane should be cultivated on at least 260,000 hectares but at present it is being done on merely 96,000 hectares.

"This year we are expecting 576 lakh quintals of sugarcane from 96,000 hectares, which can hardly meet our domestic requirements. But if we see the previous year's figure of 83,000 hectares, it's an improvement. But for covering an area of 260,000 hectares, we have to deal with various issues" said Bhupinder Singh, cane commissioner of Punjab.

"We have proposed extension services should be looked after by our department and sugar mills should take care of marketing. If everything goes well, we can achieve the target of covering 260,000 hectares under sugarcane within three years. Seeing the response of farmers in the training camps, we have a plan to set a target of covering 120,000 hectares in the next fiscal," he said.

"In 1996-97 the area under sugarcane cultivation had been 230,000 hectares with a production of 14 million tonnes; now it is just 96,000 hectares. The reason for the fall is that farmer's dues were not paid on time and even till now the cooperative mills have not paid dues amounting to more than Rs 60 crore accrued in 2002-03," said Sucha Singh Gill, a prominent agriculture expert.