Thakurgaon Sugar Mill is on the brink of bankruptcy due to a lack of the production of sugarcane. To save the mill, and their jobs, workers, with no alternatives, have started to grow sugarcane on 600 acres of land.
According to the workers, they have not been paid in four months. This has caused them, and their families, to face inhuman situations. Farmers are increasingly uninterested in cultivating sugar cane.
The reasons for this include:
- Not being paid on time by the mill authority
- Delayed fertilizer and pesticide supply
- Not obtaining improved seeds
- Superior profitability of wheat, vegetable, and fruit cultivation
- Sugarcane cultivation requiring at least 15 months of land occupation
Ruhul Amin a farmer of the 29-Mile Sugarcane-Buying Center in Thakurgaon said that, in the current scenario, a minimum profit cannot be ensured by sugarcane cultivation. Another sugarcane farmer Sahabuddin said: “We can farm three- to-four different types of crops on our land—instead of growing sugarcane which takes more than a year to grow and profit from. So there is no valid reason for common farmers to cultivate sugarcane.”
On the other hand Managing Director of the Thakurgaon Sugar Mill Abdus Shahi said: “as we could not sell the sugar in stock; we are unable to pay the workers.” He also claimed that despite such tough conditions they are continuing their loan program and trying their best to accommodate the farmers with agricultural equipment required for sugarcane cultivation.
According to the mill authority they expected sugarcane production of one lakh three thousand metric tons last season, but were only able to collect and process 84 thousand metric tons.
This season they expected that cultivation would reach eight thousand acres of land, though only six thousand acres were used for sugarcane cultivation. The workers of the mill are cultivating sugarcane on 600 acres of land—which is a new phenomenon.
Former sugarcane farmer Pir Box said: “Though the mill authority has taken multiple steps – such as providing compensation and scholarships for our children to encourage us to cultivate sugarcane –we are not convinced. The sugar mills are buying sugarcane for only two taka per kg, which is very low, unlike anywhere else in the world.”
Addressing this situation, Dean of the Economics Department of Thakurgaon Government College Professor Shamim Hossain said “profit is the main objective of modern-day agriculture.”
According to him, to ensure continued sugarcane cultivation and sugar production, the following steps are necessary;
- Increasing the price of sugar cane—in line with other cash crops
- Providing farmers with state-of-the-art agricultural equipment and improved sugar cane seeds
- Reducing the price of seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and cultivation equipment
He believes that the workers farming sugarcane for sugar production is a temporary solution. The sugarcane farmers, themselves, have to start cultivating it for the sugar mill to survive. Long-term steps need to be taken for the survival of this industry, he added.
