Agriculture: Election year boon for sugarcane growers

The outgoing Sindh government has fixed the sugarcane rate at Rs425 per 40kg for 2023-24 and announced November 15 as the commencement date for crushing season. This is something rarely seen in the last 15 years. The farmers find this beneficial. The last government raised sugarcane’s price substantially and this change almost seems to be as per growers’ demand as a departing gesture, for 2024 is considered an election year. One of the vibrant growers’ bodies — Sindh Abadgar Board — wanted the sugarcane rate to be fixed at Rs445 as per its calculations of input cost. The current price is a 41 per cent increase over last year’s rate of Rs302 and 70pc over the 2021 season’s rate of Rs250. Apart from other factors, such a spike in rate is attributable to electoral incentives. The outgoing government derived its strength predominantly from Sindh’s rural parts, and most of its parliamentarians are big farmland owners. The most surprising and interesting element was the consent of the powerful sugar millers to not only allow the price increase but also to announce the start of the crushing season on November 15 in just one sitting of the Sugarcane Control Board. If history is any guide in the last 15 years, sugarcane’s price fixation has always been a thorny issue between growers and wealthy sugar millers.