Jamaat-i-Islami Punjab Decries Sugarcane Crushing Delay as Farmers Face Distress

LAHORE: Jamaat-i-Islami Punjab Ameer Muhammad Javed Qasuri has said that sugarcane growers are facing severe economic hardship and uncertainty.

Addressing a press conference alongside Dr Babar Rasheed, Zikrullah Mujahid, Rasheed Manhala, Muhammad Farooq Chohan and Imran ul Haq, he said farmers’ crops were ready for harvest, but sugar mill owners had yet to begin the crushing season.

He demanded that the price of sugarcane be fixed at Rs700 per maund and that crushing be guaranteed to start by November 10.

According to him, the longer the sugarcane harvest is delayed, the later wheat can be sown.

Qasuri also criticised the provincial government’s farmer package, saying the relief was not reaching growers. He said urea bags were being sold on the black market for up to Rs5,000, while DAP was being sold Rs4,000 more expensive than last year.

He said that if the petroleum levy was not abolished during negotiations with the government, Jamaat-i-Islami would march on Islamabad. He called for immediate government intervention.

He said that in the last season, several sugar mills had also failed to pay growers the full amount due for their cane, which he described as regrettable and deplorable.

According to available estimates, sugarcane has been planted on about 1.19 million acres across the country, with total production expected to be around 84.2 million tonnes.

Qasuri said cotton production had been declining steadily for the past decade, and that the unbalanced expansion of sugarcane in southern Punjab had disrupted the agricultural system in traditional cotton areas.

He also criticised the government over delays in official wheat procurement. He said wheat had been sown on about 16.2 million acres in Punjab, but around 70 percent of the produce had already been sold in the market. The government, he said, had registered ten private companies instead of buying directly.

He said wheat was bought last season for less than Rs3,000 per maund, while a 50-kilogram bag of seed was not available for even Rs9,000.

Questioning the government’s claim that the Kissan Card amount was being raised from Rs30,000 to Rs33,500 per acre and that Rs3,500 would be given as fertiliser subsidy, Qasuri said that if this money was genuinely a subsidy, the government should bear it itself and not place an additional burden on farmers.