LAHORE: Punjab has sown the sugarcane crop on 2.148 million acres for kharif 2021-22 exceeding the official goal of 1.880m acres by over 14 per cent as extra and extra farmers being persistently hit by the failure of cotton are quick turning to different crops, reveals Crop Reporting Service (CRS) information.
CRS Director Dr Abdul Qayyum says sugarcane plantation goal is being exceeded for the second consecutive yr, although this season the sowing is 11computer greater than the final season when the crop had been sown on 1.920m acres.
The sugarcane acreage might have been even greater had hybrid rice varieties not given a tricky time to it.
Saying all components are to date favouring harvest, Dr Abdul Qayyum hopes that the sugar manufacturing will likely be 26computer greater at 63.065 million tonnes in opposition to the goal of 50m tonnes.
Round 75computer of the full sugarcane produce is often crushed by the mills.
Farmers say repeated failure of cotton crop yr after yr within the south Punjab is making the growers look out for options and they’re discovering cane as among the best substitutes. Land below white lint has shrunk nearly by half from 6.2m acres to three.2m acres throughout the previous few years.
“Cotton growers are facing losses for the last five years due to poor yield and rising cost of production. They find sugarcane as a better alternative because unlike white lint it doesn’t require much care, while it’s also guaranteeing good returns, at least for the last couple of years,” says Pakistan Kisan Ittehad President Khalid Khokhar.
Partially endorsing the views, Mr Qayyum tells Daybreak: “Better prices of sugarcane crop during the last season convinced the growers to bring more area under the crop. In some cases they got Rs300 per maund for their produce against the minimum official support price of Rs200 per maund.”
Mr Khokhar, nevertheless, sounds a word of warning. “The growers might not get advantage of the higher crop if cane crushing season is just not began by the sugar mills in time, he provides, insisting that the crushing should start by Nov 10 in order that the farmers have ample time to provide their produce to the mills.
Punjab Cane Commissioner Muhammad Zaman Wattoo accepts that slender window of crushing will put the growers on the mercy of the sugar millers. He says his workplace will request the federal government to order the start of the crushing season a minimum of on the dates it began final yr “between Nov 10 and 15”.
The assembly of the Sugar Advisory Board will likely be convened by September finish, a month earlier than the begin of the crushing season as per custom, to debate the sugarcane minimal assist value concern, he provides.
Revealed in Daybreak, August 18th, 2021
