Farmers Associates Pakistan (FAP) expressing its concern over the demand of the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) Punjab Zone for fixation of support price of sugarcane at Rs 45 instead of Rs 60 has termed this demand as destructive for the farmers.
Chief Co-ordinator FAP, Muhammad Idrees Khokhar, said here on Wednesday that for the last some years input cost and prices of other necessary items for agriculture had increased manifold. He said crop of sugarcane produces more if sowed in September but it is a 16-month crop. A farmer at least invests Rs 25,000 for this crop and had to give water 22 times during a year despite an average rain. So sugarcane growing is more expensive and hard process, he added.
He claimed that support price of sugarcane remained frozen at Rs 45 per 40 kg before 2005-06, due to which it became a deficit crop and farmers slowly started deviating from this crop and in that year the country had to face acute shortage of sugarcane. Sugar prices soared to Rs 40 per kg and government had to spend huge foreign exchange to import sugar from India and other countries. Support price was increased by 25 percent in 2006-07 and it helped, as country not only became self-sufficient in sugar rather able to export.
Idrees feared that reduction in support price of sugarcane would again force the farmers to stop sowing the sugarcane crop resultantly the sugar prices and problems of both farmers and consumers will increase. FAP Chief Co-ordinator rejected this demand of the PSMA and urged the government to ensure economic protection of the farmers and support price of sugarcane should be increased in line with hike in the input cost. In his opinion, support price of the sugarcane should be fixed at least at Rs 75 per 40 kg before its sowing season.
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