LAHORE, Aug 4: The government must fix the responsibility for the current sugar crisis in the country, demanded the Kisan Board Pakistan (KBP) here on Thursday.

At a press conference, secretary-general Ibrahim Mughal put the blame squarely on sugar millers. The sugar industry suffered three chronic problems: it was inefficient, ruled by greed and had outdated production methods, he said.

Drawing comparison with Indian sugar industry, he said that the Indian millers paid 12.50 per cent more price for cane to the farmers — Rs45 against Rs40 per mound being paid in Pakistan. The Indian industry sells sugar at 20 per cent less price than that in Pakistan — Rs23.97 per kilograms against Rs29 in Pakistan. The difference, he said, was that of efficiency. Instead of making money through efficiency, local industrialists made profits through negative means, he said and added: “They (local industrialists) neither pay farmers (good price) for cane, nor weigh cane honestly, nor gage sucrose honestly.” Industrialists rig these areas to make money at the cost of farmers.

Pakistan is already at the bottom among the cane producing countries of the world. Its production hardly touches 450 mounds per acre as compared to 750 even in India. It is because the government had not been able to introduce high-yield varieties, he said. Pakistan had been producing four million tons of sugar from 2.7 million acres that it had been cultivating for the last many years, while the Indians would produce 6.7 million tons of sugar from the same acreage, he added.

Mr Mughal said the government had not helped the farmers either by updating the laws dealing with sugar production. The federal government created a committee to up date the Cane Act in March this year. But, the committee, which included provincial ministers and secretaries, had not been able to meet even once, he deplored.

Moreover, the new cane varieties matured rapidly and necessitated start of crushing season earlier than November, he said, adding that these varieties had also improved upon the sugar content. All these issues have rendered the present cane act useless and it must be updated, but the government’s committee had been unable or unwilling to move ahead, he said.

The government must move to rectify the situation as it was a matter of shame that a country with over 70 per cent population involved in agriculture was importing even basic commodities like vegetables and sugar, he lamented.