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Growing Sugarcane Crisis in Rangpur Zone

Employees worried as all 5 mills count loss for years

MEHEDY Hasan, Rangpur
All the five sugar mills in Rangpur division have closed their production for this season without reaching the target due to shortage of sugarcane supply.
Authorities fixed a production target of 25,438 tonnes of sugar in the five sugar mills by crushing3,57,000 tonnes of sugarcane in this season but they produced only 16,660 tonnes of sugar.
The sugar mills in Rangpur division incurred a total loss ofTk 1,200 crore during the last 20 years, said the mill sources.
The situation leaves over 5,500 officers and employees of the sugar mills worried about their future if the mills are to be laid off due to continued losses.
The five sugar mills started this season's productionin early Decemberlastyear.
Shyampur Sugar Mills in Rangpur began production on December 2 with a production target of3,987 tonnes but it stopped production on January 12 this year after producing 2,355 tonnes of sugar. As a result, about Tk 10 crore has been added to the mills' earlier cumulative loss ofTk 160 crore.
Setabganj Sugar Mills in Setabganj upazila under Dinajpur district started
production on December 2 last year with a production target of 4,500 tonnes but authorities stopped production in midJanuary after producing3,740tonnes.
Thakurgaon Sugar Mills started production with a production target of 6,300 tonnes of sugar on December 2 last year. But after producing 4,695 tonnes the mill stopped this season's production on February 7 this year.
Rangpur Sugar Mills at Mohimaganj in Gaibandha district and Panchagarh Sugar Mills also stopped production on January 6 and March 6. Both of them failed to achieve production target.
The mill authorities said they had to stop production to prevent further losses as they could not produce the expected sugar due to insufficient sugarcane supply.
Besides, this season's production rate is relatively low as most of the sugarcane contains less amounts of juice due to adverse weather condition.
Use of a huge amount of sugarcane in thousands of illegal crushing machines beside the sugar mills is also responsible for the situation, said sugar mill officials and locals.
"We got Tk 93.30 per maund of sugarcane at the gate of Shyampur Sugar
Mills. On the other hand, we earned Tk 200-250 per maund by selling the sugarcane to molasses producers. Molasses traders also help farmers with advance money for sugarcane cultivation," said Rahman Mondol, a sugarcane farmer at Nisbetganj under Rangpur Sadar upazila.
Authorities of sugar mills claimed they also offered the farmers incentives in the form of seed, fertiliser and technical support for farming sugarcane on more areas of land but there was hardly any response from farmers.
This year the farmers in Rangpur district cultivated sugarcane on about 2,000 hectares of land and the production stood at about 1 lakh 80 thousand tonnes, said the sources of the Department of Agriculture Extension.
Sugarcane production in the area is declining every year, they said.
Finding the price received from the sugar mills too inadequate, many farmers are opting for cultivating short duration rice and other crops while huge amount of sugarcane is used by a large number of 'illegal' crushing machines to produce molasses that brings more profit.