Sugarcane farmers suffer massive losses

Sugarcane growers based in six catchment areas have suffered heavy losses this year as the total weight of the crops shrivelled because of a late harvest, bringing down sugar yield.

The sugar yield or recovery rate of most mills was below 5.20 per cent, except for the North Bengal Sugar Mills in Natore.

The average recovery rate, which refers to sugar produced after processing a definite weight of sugarcane, in Bangladesh is half of India and Brazil, the world’s top two sugarcane producers.

“Aside from growers, the mills also suffered heavy losses this season due to the low recovery rate as sugarcanes dried up because of late harvesting,” said a managing director of a sugar mill in the northern district.

Sugar production at six mills was suspended to bring down losses for the 2020-21 fiscal year. However, things happened in reverse as nine other mills also were in the red, they added.

The nine sugar mills procured sugarcane from the catchment areas within the standard harvesting period, various sources said. There are a total of 15 sugar mills in the county.

At the end of November last year, the Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industry Corporation (BSFIC) decided to shutter six of the mills in order to avert operational losses.

The six mills are Setabganj Sugar Mills, Shyampur Sugar Mills, Rangpur Sugar Mills, Panchagarh Sugar Mills, Pabna Sugar Mills, and Kushtia Sugar Mills.

The BSFIC also decided to procure sugarcane from the catchment areas that previously fed the six shuttered mills in order to supply the nine remaining functional units.

Sugarcane crushing started at these mills between December 11 and 18 last year.

Sugarcane sourced from Dinajpur, Thakurgaon and Panchagarh is crushed at Thakurgaon Mills, while harvests from Rangpur, Gaibandha and Joypurhat are crushed at Joypurhat Mills.

Ahmad Mosihur Rahman, general manager (production) of the BSFIC, said all nine remaining mills collectively produced around 44,459 tonnes of sugar as of March 10 by crushing 806,797 tonnes of sugarcane.

Last year, all 15 mills combined crushed 14.07 lakh tonnes of sugarcane.

“The recovery rate fell short this season compared to last year,” he said.

Syed Md Abu Bakar, managing director of Joypurhat Sugar Mills, said that the unit had already crushed 84,000 tonnes of sugarcane from three districts to produce 4,270 tonnes of sugar.

The mill’s recovery rate is around 5.14 per cent.

Bakar said that 25,671 tonnes of sugarcane were taken from Rangpur while it was 21,541 tonnes for Gaibandha and 37,587 tonnes for Joypurhat.

According to sources, the recovery rate was as good as expected, but it started falling when the supply of dried sugarcane from the catchment areas began to arrive.

The sugarcanes dried in the fields due to late harvests, while there have been delays in transportation.

“It would take at least 10 days to take the sugarcanes to the mills after harvesting, and obviously, the sugarcanes dry up if left under an open sky,” Bakar added.

The mill had aimed to produce 10,692 tonnes of sugar by crushing 1.62 lakh tonnes of sugarcanes in the ongoing season.

“So, achieving this target has now become quite impractical,” the managing director said.

The final weight of the sugarcanes shrank almost to half as it dried up.

“It is not possible to reach the crushing target with such dried sugarcanes,” said another official of the Joypurhat Sugar Mills.

The situation is similar to Thakurgaon Sugar Mills Ltd.

The mill has aimed to crush at least 1.42 lakh tonnes of sugarcane this year. However, only half of the target has been achieved so far, said Md Shakhawat Hossain, managing director of Thakurgaon Sugar Mills.

As of now, the mill has crushed 93,880 tonnes of sugarcane to produce 4,820 tonnes of the finished product this season.

The mill’s recovery rate was 5.21 per cent.

Hossain also said that the recovery rate dropped as the sugarcane had dried up. Besides, yields declined due to adverse weather conditions last year.

Such a perilous situation left the growers to face massive losses.

Zikrul Islam of Sundarban village under Dinajpur Sadar upazila cultivated sugarcane on five acres of land last year. Each year, he gets a moderately good yield, but things were different last season.

“My entire sugarcane harvest either got rotten or dried up due to the late harvest,” Islam told The Daily Star, adding that he produced just 600 quintals of sugarcane this year.

One tonne equals to 10 quintals.

“I suffered Tk 4 lakh losses as a result,” Islam added.

“I have lost everything and become penniless. I have no idea how I will recover from such a situation.”

Last year, Islam produced 1,700 quintals of sugarcane on the same land.

The story is similar to many other sugarcane farmers in the district.

Anwar Hossain of Agra village suffered losses of around Tk 1 lakh after cultivating sugarcane on two acres of land.

Hamidur Rahman, general secretary of the Sugarcane Farmers Association in Dinajpur, said that at least 45,000 tonnes of sugarcane were grown in Dinajpur this season.

Of them, the sugar mill authorities procured around 80 per cent as of March 2.

“Not only the farmers but also the sugar mills are suffering losses,” he said.

There are around 7,000 sugarcane farmers in Dinajpur, and all of them incurred losses to some extent, Rahman added.

Mehdi Hasan Sagar, general secretary of the Sugarcane Farmers Association in Rangpur, said that sugarcane grown on a total of 7,000 acres of land was pending harvest.

“Fifty per cent of this stock has already dried,” said Sagar, who also suffered a Tk 50,000 loss due to the situation.

Many growers left their sugarcane unharvested as they had dried up. In many cases, villagers can be seen taking away these dried sugarcanes to use as fuel, he added.

Following the significant losses incurred this year, many sugarcane farmers said that they would no longer produce sugarcane from next year.

Majharul Haque Prodhan, president of the Bangladesh Sugarcane Farmers Federation, said they had protested the BSFIC decision to close the mills. However, the state-run organisation paid no heed.

“Such a situation would not have arisen if the decision was taken a year back,” Prodhan said, urging agriculture researchers to introduce high-yielding varieties in Bangladesh.

According to the BSFIC, all the sugar mills suffered a combined loss of about Tk 970 crore in fiscal 2019-20. The accumulated losses for the last five years stand as Tk 3,976 crore.

Pepe Badsha, general secretary of the Bangladesh Sugarcane Farmers Federation, said corrupt officials of the mills and the absence of high-yielding sugarcane plants were the reasons behind the loss.

“Asides from sugar, many things can be made as byproducts,” he said, adding that sugarcane cultivation has declined mainly due to the government’s experiment with six mills.

North Bengal Sugar Mills procured 48,000 tonnes of sugarcane from targeted 71,000 tonnes this year.

The mill was shut down on March 1, and the remaining sugarcane was left to rot on the fields, Badsha said.

“So, farmers in the catchment areas suffered losses,” he added.

Md Humayun Kabir, managing director of North Bengal Sugar Mills, said they aimed to crush 1.82 lakh tonnes of sugarcane at the mill. However, it managed to crush just 1.28 lakh tonnes as of March 1.

The initial recovery rate was 7 per cent, and it eventually fell to 6.43 per cent.

“Our recovery rate was a bit high as we started the crushing earlier,” Kabir said.

According to BSFIC officials, at least 14,07,139 tonnes of sugarcane was grown for crushing in 2019-20. Besides, 64,000 tonnes of sugar remained unsold as of June last year.

The corporation had around 6,000 tonnes of unsold sugar from the previous season.

“Farmers faced losses because of bad production of sugarcanes due to floods. And they got the same price as they received in the past,” said BSFIC Chairman Md Arifur Rahman Apu.