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No NOCs for sugar mills until agricultural zoning study
FIDA HUSSAIN
ISLAMABAD (June 08 2007): The government will not allow the establishment of new sugar mills under the proposed new study of agricultural zoning, daily Business Recorder learnt on Thursday. The new study on agricultural zoning will be finalised in coming months and before the finalisation of the study, no fresh NOC would be issued for setting up new sugar industrial unit, sources said.
Member agriculture, Planning Commission, Dr Kausar Abdullah confirmed to the correspondent that no fresh NOC would be issued for the establishment of new sugar mills. However, he did not give any further details whether this decision would stand after the completion of the study or not. He did not disclose whether this ban is extendible to the already planned six sugar mills, which are to be built in the cotton growing areas.
He said that conducting the study on agricultural zoning had become necessary. Under the proposed study, we would designate certain areas for specified crops. Sugarcane has replaced cotton due to establishment of sugar industry in the belt, he said. Similarly rice is grown in the areas where other crops could give better yields, he added.
These practices, he said, have bad impact on overall ecology. The proposed study would take input from the already conducted study of Agro-climatic zones, which was conducted by Meteorological Department and the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal). Under this study agriculture environment was classified into around 50 agro-climatic zone.
The parameters considered for the classification included mean monthly rainfall, daily maximum, minimum and mean temperature accumulated seasonal temperatures and average daylight, etc, he said.
Apart from these factors, the new study would give a detailed analysis of the current practices of land utilisation, and soil analysis, Dr Kausar Abdullah said.
An extensive study of industrial growth in different areas of the country shows that industries were allowed to grow in haphazard manner. It was mostly left to the will of the farmers to grow whichever crop they wanted. Similarly, the industrialists set up manufacturing units in various areas without prior study on the suitability of the site. Setting up of textile and paper and board units on prime agricultural land along the Sheikhupura-Faisalabad road and flour mills in areas with minimal or no wheat sowing. Concentration of sugar mills in particular areas has led to growth of sugar industry at the cost of the ecology.
In the early 1980s, there was an autonomous Agricultural Prices Commission (APCOM) that ensured sugar was rationed. There was zoning system in place that made it binding on the farmers to sell sugarcane only to the mill in those zones the farm was situated. Such policies led to excessive cultivation of sugarcane in these zones, said the study.
Many other countries in the region especially India and China are adopting far more advanced scientific methods to increase their crop yield and make early assessment of the crop size. These include use of Geographical Information System and Satellite Remote Sensing to provide baseline information, according to the study.
According to some analysts, the idea of agricultural zoning could not be implemented without the government announced some kinds of subsidies to the farmers. The Pakistan Environment Protection Agency (EPA) has already given guidelines. But these guidelines are the least bothered by the people who set up industries.
According to the National Environment Policy 2005, it is binding on the government to ensure protection and preservation of prime agricultural land from conversion for other uses through introduction of land use planning and zoning, they said.
Courtesy Business Recorder |
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