Snags in flood compensation

On the cards
Flood affectees of 2010 still await monetary help in the shape of Watan Cards they were promised
By Tahir Ali

 

http://jang.com.pk/thenews/may2012-weekly/nos-13-05-2012/pol1.htm#3

Even after almost two years since the devastating 2010 flash-floods hit the country, financial support to flood affected people – the citizens’ damage compensation programme (CDCP) – is still a long way to go as only Rs20 billion of the total payable around Rs48bn have been disbursed by April 5 this year.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has exceeded other provinces in the provision of compensation amount to the flood victims, thanks to its expertise in dealing with militancy compensation programme in the militancy-hit Malakand division and the Bajaur and Mohmand agencies.

Out of the total amount of Rs20.03bn distributed in the country so far at the rate of Rs20,000 per head per tranche, KP has distributed Rs9.06bn and almost completed the second phase while Punjab has disbursed Rs7.71bn, Sindh 2.89bn, AJK Rs0.16bn, Gilgit Baltistan Rs0.12bn and Balochistan only Rs0.065bn.

While KP accounts for 45 per cent, Punjab 38 and Sindh 14 per cent of the payment, the rest of the areas each account for less than one per cent.

KP is ahead of other provinces in the processing of Watan Cards too. Out of total 0.79mn flood-hit persons in the country, Watan Cards for 0.739mn have been processed. While in Sindh the cards of 0.14mn out of 0.164mn (or 84 percent) and in Punjab, 0.31mn off the 0.338mn cards or 92 percent have been activated, KP has processed 0.263mn cards off the total 0.276mn or over 95 percent. Balochistan has processed 3271 out of the total 3732 cards.

According to an official of KP government, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, for a flood compensation house damage was made a criterion but it was only flood support and not house compensation as that required huge funds which was beyond KP’s resources.

The government earlier had paid Rs0.4mn for a fully destroyed house and Rs0.16mn for partially destroyed one in militancy in Malakand division but the amount was mostly provided by foreign donors, which was not the case for flood compensation.

“The strategy was approved in the Council of Common Interest (CCI) meeting following the floods. While Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan went for blanket coverage of the affected districts, KP could not do so for its limited resources and, instead, it argued for limited payment after verification on the basis of complete or partial damage to houses,” said the official.

Despite remarkable success, there are allegations of political influence in the registration process of flood affected people and corrupt practices.

Though official data put the number of beneficiaries for compensation at 0.789mn and 0.275 in the country and KP respectively, a worker with a non-governmental organization during the floods, wishing anonymity, said actual flood-hit people were far less than projected.

The official said Watan Cards were even distributed amongst ‘beneficiaries’ from areas not hit by floods altogether or who hailed from those areas of the affected districts that remained safe from floods.

“The number of ‘affected people’ was increased to accommodate the lists given by political leaders. These inflated lists of ‘affected people’ put burden on the meagre financial resources as less money had now to be distributed amongst too many. This explains why the government had to slash the compensation money to Rs60,000 from the earlier pledged Rs100,000 per affected person,” he informs.

A social worker from Nowshera said that 20-30 persons from Zakhi Maiana Nowshera, whose houses were damaged by floods, haven’t been issued cards.

The official rejected the allegation of political registration saying the World Bank’s third party validation had termed the registration process fair and that’s why we were able to begin subsequent phases for compensation across the province.

“The beneficiaries were selected by a committee in each union council, comprising Patwari, teacher, elected public representative, Pak Army personnel (where available as in Swat) and local elders. Later, the PDMA submitted the compiled data to NADRA for verification. After verification, they were granted compensation through Watan Card. Later, after the third party validation by the World Bank on the basis of Phase-I survey, a list of 0.27mn recipients was generated for the payment of 2nd and 3rd tranches under CDCP- Phase-II,” says the official.

“The government and donors have tried their level best to ensure objective and accurate data, exclusion of the well-off and inclusion of legitimate flood affected people but if even then a deserving person has not been issued card during phase-I and Phase-II, he/she may submit his/her appeal at each Nadra grievances cell at Watan Card nominated centres in each district of KP.

However, some problems on the beneficiaries’ side, e.g., their fingerprints mismatched, they provided incorrect CNIC numbers, had another beneficiary in the family, had double entries or provided wrong or incomplete addresses, etc, caused delays,” he added.

As for the allegations of registering recipients from areas not affected during floods, the official explained it was because the compensation was meant both for houses that were damaged by floods and rains in July and August, 2010.

There are also problems on the development side, according to sources. “Despite commendable performance during the emergency relief and early recovery phases, the pace and quality of the third phase of development has been greatly undermined by nepotism, political intervention, mismanagement that has resulted in over-focus on certain areas, duplication in work and wastage of funds, corruption and for lack of accountability owing to the decreased focus of the media and government. And worst, the social work has become a business for many an unscrupulous people,” said the worker.

The official, however, rejected the allegations of corruption and political interference and said that the efforts have been made for transparency and to avoid any duplication of work so that resources may not be wasted. “A separate rehabilitation and reconstruction directorate in the province has also been established to ensure transparency and coordination between the development partners,’ he said.

He defended the NGOs which, he said, helped the government cope with catastrophes and therefore deserved and got every possible support.  ”In the early recovery phase, local and international NGOs built makeshift transitional shelters for the flood victims but these were of no use as they started constructing their homes themselves soon after. The phase of building permanent shelters for the people later begun but the facility was mostly availed by those who weren’t hit by floods. And the poor most of the victims couldn’t get shelters as they lived on rented land and the owners/landlords didn’t allow them to have shelters built for them. The government should have allocated state lands for these people,” he added.

caption

Out and waiting.

 

No end in sight

There are complaints of difficulties in receiving money from banks. Long queues of beneficiaries, including women, are seen in front of designated bank branches.

To offset this, in October 07, 2011, the state bank of Pakistan directed all commercial banks to make special arrangements to ensure that their ATMs were operational, cash was replenished in a timely manner and that no service charges were required on the use of Watan cards from the beneficiaries.

Floods inflicted a loss of around $10bn on Pakistan. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa suffered $1.2 billion losses and requires $2.2 billion for the flood reconstruction. However, foreign donor support hasn’t arrived as expected. It seems issues of transparency, poor planning, donor fatigue and indifference of local leaders to provide their due in donations are to be blamed for the phenomenon.

According to UN figures, of the $2.6bn funded – actually contributed or committed – so far by foreign countries for flood victims in Pakistan, over $372mn are still to be paid. Strangely, most of the contributions were made by Non-Muslim world and the Muslim countries lagged far behind. Amongst the top 10 donor countries, contributing around $1691mn, $1617 were given by former and only $228mn were funded by Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates of which $90mn are still non-committed pledges. The USA, Japan and UK with $683mn, $301 and $224mn are the leading donor countries.

 

Decline in sugarcane market price

Decline in sugarcane market price

By Tahir Ali

THE ban on supply of gur to Afghanistan despite bumper sugarcane crop and the prolonged cold/dry weather have improved cane supply situation for sugar mills. However, farmers in Khyber PakhtunKhwa remain adversely affected.

Along with fall in price of sugar, per satta (two purs or 150-180kg) price of gur has come down to about Rs8,000-9,000 this season from Rs16,000-17,000 last year. It is for the first time in recent years that gur has lost its competitiveness.

Masud Khan, an official of the Premier Sugar Mills, Mardan, said that an overwhelming majority of farmers were bringing their produce to the mills. “For the first time during this season cane supply has reached 100 per cent delivery. We are receiving around 3,600 tonnes of the commodity daily,” he said adding “against the official support price of Rs150 per 40kg, the growers were being paid Rs158/40kg or around Rs200 per 50kg.”

“Huge cane production, low gur prices and damages caused to the crop by frost with fear of further loss to sucrose contents due to weather conditions, and the need to vacate lands for subsequent crops, are compelling farmers to bring their crops to the mills,” Khan added.

According to Haji Naimat Shah Roghani, senior vice-president Anjuman-i-Kashtkaran KP, farmers widely cultivated cane this year following attractive prices of Rs338/50kg offered by mills, and around Rs16,000/satta price of gur in the market last year. Cane was sold even up to Rs500/50kg to private vendors engaged in juice extracting business.

“Banning movement of gur to the tribal belt and its export to Afghanistan, which led to sharp fall in its prices, the faulty decision of the government to import sugar at the start of crushing season instead of lifting stocks from mills in time, led to fall in cane price severely affecting growers. This, no doubt, helped reduce sugar prices in the market but at a critical juncture making timely payments to farmers impossible, at least for now,” he said.

“The millers are offering a price of Rs200 for 50kg these days. At the present rate of returns and for gur in the market, 300 maunds average per acre yield (15 purs or eight satta) could earn a farmer only Rs60,000 and nearly the same amount if he takes his produce to mills.

The present rate of gur and the rate offered by mills are too little for farmers as the per acre cost of production has increased to almost over Rs60,000 due to steep rise in prices of farm inputs, services and increased land-rent in recent times, especially in the last couple of years,” said Mr Roghani.

“With such a return that only equals the cost of production, farmers would hardly be inclined to grow sugarcane in the coming Kharif season. Does the government understand the risks involved?” he asked.

Farmers in the cane-rich DIK have multiple complaints. Muhammad Ismael, a farmer from Luanda Sharif in DIK, said farmers were being denied indents, a prerequisite for cane-supply to mills. “Indents are issued only to big farmers who have access to right quarters. The farmers with poor resources are running from pillar to post. As gur production was mostly avoided by area farmers, selling cane to mills was the only option,” he said.

”But with indents not issued or delayed for lengthy process as these are being provided through agents against the past practice when it was directly given to farmers, we have to sell our cane to the commission ‘mafia’ at a lower prices but prompt payment. The commission agents buy the crop between Rs135-140 per 40kg against Rs150 offered by Chashma Sugar mills in the area,” he added.

“Payments legally due in 15 days are delayed for months. A farmer who supplied cane to a mill last year received his payments this year. The farmers are also subjected to a cut of around 10-15 per cent on the pretext of poor quality and low sucrose content,” added Mr Ismael.

With gur prices historically low, the commission agents should also have reduced their commission at gur markets. “But they continue to impose a commission of Rs130/pur in Mardan and Swabi while their counterparts in Peshawar and Charsadda were collecting only Rs40/pur. The government must ensure a uniform rate of commission for gur agents in the province,” Mr Roghani added.

“The government is also needed to support farmers through targeted subsidies on inputs. It should remove or reduce general sales tax on agriculture services and inputs. It should allow export of gur and lift the ban on its movement to the provincially- and federally-administered tribal areas,” he stressed.

Tobacco pricing and grading in KP

Tobacco grading and pricing

 

By Tahir Ali Khan |

 

http://www.dawn.com/2011/07/25/tobacco-grading-and-pricing.html

 

GROWERS in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa complain of low prices offered by tobacco companies and the unmerited grading of their crop.

 

At present, 200-250kg of barn-cured tobacco of different grades fetches around Rs30,000-35,000 which is much lower than warranted by the escalating cost of production, says a Swabi farmer Abdur Razzaq.

 

Tobacco, as per law, is the only cash crop whose weighted average price (Wap) must increase by a certain ratio each year.

 

“Though prices are supposed to be fixed in ‘consultation’ with farmers taking into account the cost of production and other factors, tobacco companies use their clout to fix prices of their own choice. They usually try to buy double the quantity of their annual purchase targets at the lowest possible price,” he said.

 

This season, as per assessment of tobacco growers, the average cost of production stood at Rs167 per kg. “The Wap should have been fixed at Rs200 per kg to benefit the growers, but buyers are offering between Rs125-78 per kg for different grades of recommended varieties and Rs104-95 per kg for non-recommended varieties. This shows how unrealistic is the price fixed by the Pakistan Tobacco Board (PTB). The shrinking profit margin has particularly hit the small farmers,” he said.

 

Last year the companies had purchased tobacco from growers at Rs103-105 per kg against the Wap of Rs98 fixed by the PTB.

 

“Tobacco companies earn huge profit as, according to an estimate, they prepare over 1,000 cigarettes per kg of tobacco. The influential firms are working as a cartel to increase their margins. But farmers are suffering for lack of cooperation and ignorance,” he said.

 

Had the companies not agreed to purchase the harvested non-recommended tobacco variety, called Swati locally, at the average support price of Rs104.30 per kg for the year, around 40 million kg of this variety would have no buyers and that would have exposed around 80 per cent farmers –that grow Swati in Mardan, Swabi and Charsadda – to huge financial losses. But thanks to the farmers’ efforts that the appalling scenario has been averted,” he said.

 

Asfandyar Khan, another farmer says “Farmers have greatly benefited from Swati variety as it has increased their output by about 50 per cent, saved them from the problem of grading as almost all of its leaves are of No.1 quality.”

 

Until recently, these companies were urging farmers to grow the Swati variety and why private buyers are taking it” he asked.

 

He said farmers were also unhappy over the deliberate and unfair down-grading of their tobacco. “The companies sort out the best leaves and reject the rest which is eventually purchased by private buyers. The importance of grading can be judged from the fact that for the top eight grades of recommended tobacco varieties, the average maximum and minimum prices per kg in descending order are between Rs125 and Rs107, Rs123-105, Rs119-103, Rs115-101, Rs105-94, Rs100-92, Rs90-83 and Rs82-78,” Asfandyar said.

 

As per the law (MLO No.487) and their written agreements with farmers, tobacco companies are to be fined if they fail to purchase the entire tobacco crop from growers but they often delay procurement or abruptly end purchasing the commodity.

 

“They ask us to bring our produce but they buy a little of it of their choice and close the depot. This is done precisely to make growers

run from pillar to post to sell their ‘sub-standard’ tobacco on low prices to private buyers who seem to be the agents of these companies,” he added.

 

Tobacco companies and the PTB each year warn farmers not to cultivate the non-recommended varieties as these won’t be purchased by them, but only 10-20 per cent farmers cultivate the recommended high-yielding varieties of Speight G28, K399, RGH4 and TM 2008 and the other 80 per cent go for the Swati variety. This could either be due to their ignorance or the urge for better profit on part of the farmers.

 

Tobacco employs over three million persons directly or indirectly, contributes billions to national exchequer in taxes and saves billions likely to be spent on imports of cigarettes besides earning millions of dollars in exports.

 

KP produces between 65-85 million kg of tobacco but the output can be enhanced to 300 m/kg per year. With a possible production of 300 million kg, Khyber Pukhtoonkwa can earn $537mn annually from tobacco export. But the potential has yet to be realised. “KP grows about 98 per cent of Virginia tobacco but its membership in the PTB is equal to that of Punjab. It should be given representation proportionate to its output,” he added.

 

Following is the text of the article I had sent to Dawn.

Low tobacco prices and grading and purchasing problems

By Tahir Ali Khan

Tobacco farmers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are disappointed over low tobacco prices offered by tobacco companies as well as what they call unmerited grading of their tobacco crop.

At present rate of tobacco, an average barn comprising around 200-250kg of different grades of tobacco fetches the farmers only around Rs30-35 thousand which is much less than warranted on the back of escalated cost of production, Abdur Razzaq, a farmer from Swabi, said.

He said per kilogram cost of production for tobacco this season stood at Rs167 as per their assessment. “The Wap should have been fixed Rs200 per kg to benefit the growers, but companies are offering farmers between Rs125-78 per kg for different grades of recommended varieties and between Rs104- 95 per kg for non-recommended ones. The shrinking of profit margin has particularly hit the small farmers.” he added.

Tobacco, as per law, is the only cash crop whose weighted average price (Wap) must increase by a certain ratio each year but farmers have been traditionally denied good returns for their crop.

“Though theoretically tobacco prices are fixed in ‘consultation’ with farmers after different surveys and taking into account the cost of production and other factors, tobacco companies using their clout and unity are managing prices of their own choice and benefit. The companies usually purchase double the quantity of their annual purchase targets but at much lesser price than due,’ he said.

“Tobacco companies earn huge profit as according to an estimate they prepare over 1000 cigarettes from one kilogram of tobacco. They are united and can manipulate prices that suit them but farmers are suffering for disunity and ignorance in their ranks,” he added.

“That tobacco companies are offering up to Rs125 against the WAP of Rs104 speaks volumes of how unrealistic the price fixed by the Pakistan tobacco board (Ptb) is. Last year they had purchased tobacco from growers at Rs103-Rs105 per kilogram against the Wap of Rs98 fixed by the Ptb,” he said.

According to him, had the tobacco companies not finally agreed to purchase the harvested non-recommended tobacco variety, called Swati, at the average support price of Rs104.30 per kg for the year, around 40mn kg of this variety would have no buyers and that would have deprived around 80 per cent farmers –that grow Swati in Mardan, Swabi and Charsadda- of billions of rupees but thanks to the struggle by farmers, that nightmare has been averted. But the price offered for the variety is still insufficient,” he said.

Asfandyar Khan, another farmer, seconded his thoughts. “Farmers have greatly benefited from Swati in that it has increased their output by about 50 per cent, saved them from the problem of grading as almost all of its leaves are of N0.1 quality, made curing facile and brought almost to nil the wastage of leaves during curing, thus increasing their incomes. It is astonishing the companies first refuse to buy and then fixed a meagre price for Swati as until very recently, it were these companies that had urged farmers to grow the variety. If it has bad quality and taste, then why the private buyers are offering up to Rs128 per kg for it and asking the growers to bring as much as they can,” he said.

He said farmers were also unhappy over the deliberate and unfair down-grading of their tobacco. “The companies sort out the best leaves and reject the rest which is eventually purchased by the private buyers. The importance of grading can be judged from the fact that for the top eight grades of recommended tobacco varieties the average maximum and minimum prices per kg in descending order are between Rs125 to Rs107, Rs123-105, Rs119-Rs103, Rs115-101, Rs105-94, Rs100-92, Rs90-83 and Rs82-78. For Swati the maximum and minimum prices offered by companies is Rs104 and Rs95 while private buyers offer as much as Rs125 to Rs128 for this kind of tobacco,”

Asfandyar said as per the law (MLO No.487) and their written agreements with farmers, tobacco companies are to be fined if they failed to purchase the entire tobacco crop from growers but they often delay procurement or abruptly end purchase of the commodity.

According to another farmer who wished anonymity, ‘the companies request us to bring our tobacco produce but when we go there, they buy a little quantity of their choice and then close the depot. This is done precisely to make growers run from pillar to sell their ‘sub-standard’ tobacco on low prices to private buyers who seem to be the agents of these companies.”

Tobacco companies and PTB each year warn farmers not to cultivate the non-recommended tobacco types as these won’t be bought but only about 10-20 per cent farmers cultivate the recommended varieties of Speight G28, K399, RGH4 and TM 2008 and the other 80 per cent go for the Swati variety. What could the farmers be expected to do if the latter has great profit for them.

Importance of tobacco cannot be denied as it employs over three million persons directly or indirectly, contributes dozens of billions to national exchequer in different taxes and saves billions likely to be spent on imports of cigarettes besides earning millions in exports.

KP produces between 65-85 million-kg though it can produce up to 300 m/kg per year. With a possible production of 300 million kg, Khyber Pukhtoonkwa can earn $537mn or Rs45bn annually from the export of tobacco, but the potential has not been realised. India`s exported the country`s surplus yield to 80 countries and earned Rs130 billion annually.

 

Floods and wheat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Image via Wikipedia

Floods and wheat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

By Tahir Ali Khan

Dawn May 16, 2011

THE floods may have caused colossal damages to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s economy but they have brought some good tidings for the post-floods wheat crop.

Despite repeated claims of losses to agriculture due to land erosion, the province is set to get a bumper wheat crop this year, especially in Nowshera, Charsadda and Dera Ismail Khan — the areas worst hit by last year’s floods.

Officials say rains at the right time, silt brought by the floods and provision of seeds by the public sector, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) have helped produce a bumper wheat crop.

“Rains at good time have a pleasant effect on the crop. Again the silt layer brought to the fields by floods has also enriched and energised the soil. In our biggest wheat producing area, DIK, floods increased moisture contents in the non-irrigated fields. All these factors have enhanced wheat yield though its acreage has been comparatively less than the preceding year,” said a senior official.

Muhammad Tasleem, director general, Agriculture Extension, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said it was true that floods had eroded plenty of cultivable land and destroyed agriculture infrastructure. It had also made thousands of acres uncultivable across the province by bringing sand and pebbles to the fields besides raising its level beyond irrigation capacity. But at the same time floods had also benefited the soil,” he added.

According to him, though there had been losses to both public and private seed stocks in floods, its impact was not much as the department distributed around 5,000 tons of quality seeds which had been obtained from registered growers or purchased from Punjab Seeds Corporation.

The province had a wheat sowing target of 0.758 million hectares but the actual cultivation of wheat was on 0.740mh this year, he said. “This fall in acreage of staple food crop was because of land erosion and huge silting of fields mostly in the biggest wheat-growing areas of Peshawar, Charsadda, Nowshera and DIK. There was no rain at the time of sowing in rain-fed areas that decreased the acreage by about 5 – 6 per cent. But we are hopeful that production would be more this year than last year.

“Though wheat acreage has come down, the increase in per acre yield this year will offset the deficiency. There are reports of bumper crop with bigger grain from all areas especially the ones that had been worst hit by floods. The average per hectare yield of 1,519kg in 2009-10 has gone up to 1,575kg this year. And while we had 1.11million metric tons wheat output that year, we are hoping to get 1.14 million tons this year,” he added.

“Both per hectare yield and total production could have been even bigger had the farmers used sufficient quantity of DAP and urea in their fields. The commodity is simply getting unaffordable for the poor farmers as it is being sold at Rs4,200 per bag these days against Rs2,500-3,000 last year.

To ensure provision of quality wheat seeds to growers, the provincial government intends to purchase 5,000 tons of wheat
from registered progressive growers. The province needs around 8,000 tons in all. The rest would be provided by the private sector and the farmers themselves.

Tough there had been a lot of complaints against the NGOs and foreign donors for wrong distribution which were mostly given to non-farmers and thus were either consumed as food or sold in the market, Sherzada, chief planning officer of the ministry of agriculture, said they had not done a bad job.

“The FAO had spent around $54 million on buying and distributing fine quality wheat seeds among growers, he added.

But growers say they will benefit from the bumper crop only if the government procures wheat in time.

Abdur Rahim Khan, general secretary of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Chamber of Agriculture, said the government was yet to announce establishment of wheat purchase centres and its procurement mechanism. “The farmers will benefit only if the government purchased their produce directly from the growers rather than leaving them at the mercy of the middlemen,” he

Improving cane-supply to mills

Mills raise cane rates to ensure supplies

By Tahir Ali Khan 

Dawn February 14, 2011

THE supply of sugarcane to mills in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has picked up following fall in gur prices and improved rates being offered by sugar mills.

Gur prices plunged to Rs5,000-5,500 per 80 kg in local markets from Rs6,000-6,500 last month and Rs7,500-8,500 last October. This has prompted farmers to take their crop to millers who are offering better prices these days.

The price offered by mills is Rs338 per 50 kg of cane. But farmers Farmani Gul Khan argue that on the basis of recent gur prices this season, it should be around Rs450 for 50kg.

Since 2007, gur has been costlier than sugar.But it has lost its place of being the first priority of farmers in the province. For example with a crop of 300 maunds, a farmer will earn around Rs83,000 if he opts for gur, and over Rs100,000 if he takes it to mills, says mill owners.

Cane manager at the Premier sugar mills in Mardan Masood Khan says increase price offer has augmented supplies to the mills. “The cane supply situation improved in February and we are crushing around 3,000 tons of cane daily, approaching fast to our peak crushing of 4,000 tons achieved some years ago. We are running the mills non-stop. Gur is our main competitor. If its prices come down, farmers will come to us and vice versa. But for the moment, we are satisfied. Cane supply to mills in Dera Ismail Khan and Charsadda has also improved a lot,” he said.

Why do growers often prefer gur making? “The gur agents make advance agreements to farmers, and payments are made for standing crops. They provide seasonal/crop-based loans to growers which are used for buying inputs and meeting their domestic needs. How could farmers sell their cane crop to mills in this situation?” asks Jehangir Khan, a farmer.

“The millers, conversely, wait for farmers to bring their crop to the mills which they have already pledged to gur agents against return of advance payments or easy loans. Cane crop is also bought by cane-juice-sellers on advance payments. The millers should make agreements with cane farmers as is done in case of tobacco crop. They should purchase cane crop at fixed and better rates. Why can’t they make advance payments or provide loans to farmers like their competitors at the start of the season?” he asks.

Jehangir said farmers at present had to go to mills to get indents for their cane and suggested that it should be the other way round. “They need to reach farmers like their gur competitors. The millers in the past had opened local cane purchase/dumping centres. The farmers would bring their produce to these centres and the millers would pick it from there. This needs to be revived,” he suggests.

“Besides a fixed price for certain fixed sugar-content, farmers should get enhanced payment for produce with better sugar-content. This will be an incentive for them,” he maintains.

“In Punjab a large quantity of gur, named duplicate is being produced by mixing gur with glucose and other ingredients. It has not only a good look but also tastes better and is cheaper.

Around 100kg of duplicate is prepared in an hour. Farmers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are also planning to start producing this variety.

This means that more and more cane will be used for making gur in future. Millers will have to be more responsive and competitive to avoid this scenario,” Yousaf Shah, another farmer, adds.

“Farmers opt for gur making for two other reasons as well. One: they have to feed their livestock with cane-grass which necessitates intermittent cutting of crop as allowed by gur manufacturers and not simultaneous harvesting of the entire crop as needed by mills. Two: they use gur in their homes which they make even if they take bulk of their crop to mills. This can be avoided by providing fodder seeds and supplying farmers with sugar on deferred payment,” says Shah.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa produces about 1.3 million tons of sugarcane. It can produce up to 0.1 million tons of sugar if cane supply to mills is improved.

But the problem is that the area under cane cannot be increased because of its competition with wheat or maize and water shortage. “Investment in research for high-yielding cane varieties and increasing per acre yield with better sugar content is the need of the hour. Millers should also help, ” Jehangir argues.