Those attending the meeting were Punjab Agriculture Secretary Fayyaz Bashir, Food Secretary Ahmad Yar Khan, Sugarcane Commissioner Chaudhry Saadat Ali and representatives of growers and sugar millers. The Pakistan Sugar Mills Association, Punjab, had asked the government to slash the minimum sugarcane support prices by rupees four per 40 kilograms to match the reduction announced by the Sindh government.
The other demand was to reduce the price by rupees five per 40 kilograms to neutralise the effect of frost in Punjab. Millers told the government to fix the price at Rs 51 instead of Rs 60, but the sources said the Punjab situation was different since increase in sugar contents recovery had recorded this year.
Sources said a PSMA team headed by Haroon Akhtar a known industrialist could not satisfy the provincial authorities on its claim that recovery percentage was this year less than the last one which demands cut in the sugarcane price for compensation to the industry. PSMA gave frost a reason of low recovery and presented a study in support of t he claim.
The Farmer Association of Pakistan (FAP) representatives contested PSMA and termed its claim as a conspiracy against the growers. Rabia Sultan, a FAP director, came up with statistics on recovery percentage indicating upward tend despite heavy frost during bitter winter season. She also presented the recovery figures of the on-going season, which showed on average 8.45 percent recovery rate against 8.16 percent of the last year.
She said the industry was depriving the growers of their rightful return on their crop by using different tactics. She brought into the notice of the authorities that the industry was cheating in weight and paying less to the growers and the government should take its serious notice. Rabia added that the mills owners were deducting per maund on each category of the sugarcane and paying the grower less than the fixed price of sugarcane.
The representatives of other growers associations also seconded Rabia and held the industrialists responsible of doing wrong practices to deprive the growers of the fixed sugarcane price announced by the government.
The Punjab government had announced Rs 60 sugarcane price for the current season. The minister ordered a special campaign through the print and electronic media to educate growers about cultivation of approved sugarcane varieties.
The meeting agreed that sugar mills would accept the sugarcane variety SPF-238 this year, but its cultivation would be discouraged because the government had already banned it. Qureshi then urged the association's representatives to pay growers in 15 days to avoid an 11 percent mark-up in case of delay in doing so under the Sugarcane Act.
He also directed the Cane Commissioner to act against illegal "kanda holders" and check any possible malpractice. The meeting then accepted a proposal to buy 500,000 tonnes of sugar through the Trading Corporation of Pakistan, given by the association's representatives.
Qureshi proposed to the association and farmers' associations to hold a joint meeting to consider contract farming for sugarcane cultivation in the interests of growers and the industry.
Kisan Board Pakistan Central Information Secretary Muhammad Akhtar Farooq Mayo has congratulated Qureshi and Punjab Cane Commissioner Chudhry Saadat Ali for rejecting the millers' demand to save the farmers from a crisis. He also urged unpaid growers to contact his board office.