PESHAWAR, Oct 27: Sugarcane growers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are not expecting a fair deal from the provincial government in determining the sugarcane support price for the upcoming harvesting season, their representatives told Dawn.

They said that the growers` demands for timely establishment of sugarcane control board and an early commencement of sugarcane crushing season remained unheard to their disadvantage.

`The provincial government`s inaction is being seen with unease by thousands of sugarcane growers as their financial interest is at stake, Abdul Samad Saafi, general secretary of Kissan Board, Mardan, said on Saturday.

He said the provincial government should have, by now, set up the sugarcane control board, a legal entity mandatory for determining the support price for every harvest season.

According to Sheikh Moazzam Kamran, president of Aiwan-i-Zaraat (chamber of agriculture) Dera Ismail Khan, the provincial government didnot pay heed to fulfill its `legal` obligation to start sugarcane crushing season from November 1.

The provincial authorities, he added, had been moving with `perennial` slowness as the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa food directorate had not yet taken growers` representatives on the sugarcane control board without which the formation of the board would be incomplete.

On its part, the directorate, said an official, was making preparations to set up the board and determine new support price.

`The authorities concerned have contacted their counterparts in Sindh and Punjab and found that the board has not yet been set up in any of the other provinces,` said the official. He said the board was likely to be put in place in the first week of November.

Apart from the growers` representatives, the board also involves representatives of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa based sugar mills, and one member each from the provincial industries department and agriculture department.

The growers said that the board had been least considerate of the farmers` interest while determining the support price in previous years.not pay heed to fulfill its `legal` obligation to start sugarcane crushing season from November 1.

The provincial authorities, he added, had been moving with `perennial` slowness as the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa food directorate had not yet taken growers` representatives on the sugarcane control board without which the formation of the board would be incomplete.

On its part, the directorate, said an official, was making preparations to set up the board and determine new support price.

`The authorities concerned have contacted their counterparts in Sindh and Punjab and found that the board has not yet been set up in any of the other provinces,` said the official. He said the board was likely to be put in place in the first week of November.

Apart from the growers` representatives, the board also involves representatives of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa based sugar mills, and one member each from the provincial industries department and agriculture department.

The growers said that the board had been least considerate of the farmers` interest while determining the support price in previous years.`It does not fix the price independent of influence from the price fixed by other provinces, particularly Punjab,` said Mr Saafi.

Sheikh Kamran said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had followed in Punjab government`s footsteps and fixed the support price at Rs170 per 40 kilogrammes last year. `Though our government would set up its own board, the price would be fixed at the Punjab government`s level,` said Mr Kamran.

He said the government should fix the support price at Rs225 per 40 kilogrammes keeping in view the past one year increase in cost of production as prices of agricultural inputs had risen considerably.

The Kissan Board, said Mr Saafi, wanted the government to fix the price at Rs275 per 40 kilogrammes.

`A price less than Rs275 per 40 kilogrammes would cause losses to growers in view of increase in cost of production,` said Mr Saafi.

He said his organisation had set up four committees last year to assess the cost of production incurred by sugarcane growers and their findings revealed that on average every farmer in Mardan and Charsadda spentRs249 per 40 kilogrammes.

After the government fixed Rs170 per 40 kilogrammes support price last year, according to Mr Saafi, the growers in Mardan suffered financial losses against their total produce.

The growers` representatives said the provincial government should take immediate steps to ensure that sugar mills commenced their operations before November 15. The delay in commencing sugarcane crushing season, they added, was aimed at paying less to the growers as price of their crop.

`The delay in starting the harvest renders the standing crop to lose its weight with every passing day,` said Mr Kamran. He said the millers did not start the sugarcane crushing before the third or fourth week of November to take advantage of the growers` situation. `Sugarcanes lose one per cent in weight with every passing day in case the harvest is delayed,` said Mr Saafi.

The farmers, he added, were made to suffer as the successive governments failed to rescue the growers from the `highhandedness` of an organised and influential clique that had been `depriving` growers of due share in the crop profits.