Farmer sets sugarcane crop on fire against low rates

SADIQABAD: A farmer set his sugarcane crop on fire in protest after the per-maund purchase price was not increased in Punjab’s Sadiqabad, ARY News reported on Sunday.

The farmer said that the rising cost of fertilizer, diesel, and other expenses has become unmanageable.

He added that they would rather burn their entire crop than give in to what he described as the “blackmailing” of the mills’ mafia.

Farmers have demanded that the sugarcane price be raised from Rs. 400 per maund to Rs. 600.

Meanwhile, sugarcane farmers of Punjab and Sindh decided in a Jirga to boycott the supply of the crop to sugar mills on low price.

A gathering of the sugarcane farmers from Sindh and Punjab warned that the growers will not harvest the crop if the government wouldn’t fix per maund rate of sugarcane at Rs. 600.

“We will set our standing crops on fire but won’t be blackmailed by the sugar mills mafia,” farmers speaking at the gathering announced.

“Sugar was Rs 120 per kilogram last year while the rate of per maund sugarcane was Rs. 400,” farmers said. “This year per kilo sugar rate has soared to 200 rupees, while the sugarcane’s per maund rate still being offered 400 rupees,” farmers lamented.

“This minimal rate could not meet production expenses of the crop prepared with costly fertilizer and use of diesel,” farmers said.