Water! A blessing from nature and the basic need of life. When it comes to agriculture, it is the necessity for growth and development of agriculture sector in Pakistan. Pakistan ranks at 5th position throughout the world and 3rd among the developing countries when it comes to size of its irrigated area. Its 1:4 ratio of non-irrigated to irrigated agricultural area is ranked highest in the world. Moreover, in terms of water resources management system, canal area is 16.2 million hectare out of total cultivated area of 20.6 million hectare. Despite the extent of canal system, it supplies only 70% of the total water requirements of sugarcane.
Engr Asma Laghari
Graduated in environmental engineering from uspcasw, Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro
In Pakistan, water is costly input affecting sugar yields. It has been estimated that to produce one ton of cane, the requirement of water is 200-250 tons. Agriculture, being the dominant sector in Pakistan contributes 21.4% to GDP, employees 45% of the country’s labor force. Due to technological inventions various tools and techniques have been devised to overcome the issues related to agriculture, though many problems remain unresolved. In addition, Sugarcane crop possess an important position in national economy contributing 1.9% to GDP in order to drive the large sugar industry. It is an important cash crop of Pakistan and ranks at the 5th in its acreage and production and approximately 5th position in sugar production in the world. In Pakistan, sugarcane is widely planted in Sindh and Punjab contributing about 90% of the production. Moreover, it provides raw material to nearly 85 sugar industries throughout Pakistan. Sugarcane crop has great significance for the economy of the country in general and of Sindh province in particular as most of the people rely on crops as source of their income. The excess supply and demand of sugar was cyclic in nature and from the inputs the irrigation water is a scarce which is declining day by day.
Additionally, there are two planting seasons for sugarcane crop in Sindh, one is in autumn, (1 September to 15 October) and other one is in spring (15-February to end of March). However, the farmers prefer autumn season for planting in Sindh as it has diverse advantages over spring and it has also been experimentally proved at Sugarcane Section, Agriculture Research Institute, Tando Jam that autumn planting produces 35-40% higher yield. The sufficient amount of water
is another great advantage over spring season, while in Punjab the farmers prefer spring season due to season temperature. At sugarcane field ARI, Tando Jam with Dr. Nihal-ud-din Marri (Head of Sugarcane Section) and Wajid Ali Hisbani (Assistant Agriculture Research Officer) at Agriculture Research institute, Tando Jam, mentioned that in hot seasons we provide water to sugarcane crop every 8th day, while in cold season every 15th day, but due to climate change, and arid soil, we have to water the crop every 4th day in starting days from tube-wells. Further, they also talked about saline water; another issue for all crops is also one of the major reasons behind less productivity of sugarcane throughout Pakistan. Annually, 20 million tons of sugarcane is being harvested from which 70% of it is being converted into sugar. If we look at the data of sugarcane area, its production and yield in Sindh for last 3 years (2013-14), (2014-15) and (2015-16) the production was 18.362, 16.614 and 17.984 million tons and the yield was 624.24, 530.15 and 581.75 acre respectively which significantly depicts decline of productivity.
In an interview with Dr. Marri, Sugarcane Specialist said that, 12 to 14 months are needed for sugarcane to remain in ground as it is deep rooted crop and 66 acre of water is needed for its production. Further he mentioned an alarming fact of sugarcane production in Sindh that, about 5 million tons of sugarcane is produced annually, out of which 3.5 million tons is being exported to other countries. Along with his colleague Wajid Ali, talked about the critical situation of water shortage and its impacts on sugarcane production that if the authorities will not take notice about it, soon we will be deprived of this blessing. Additionally, when we visited the field of ARI, Tando Jam, they were providing water through tube-wells to the fields. They also mentioned that if water scarcity continues, there will be no sugarcane crop in future, which in turn will affect the economy of Pakistan. It was surprising to hear from them, that consumption of sugar and wheat is almost same i.e 22 Kg/Capita. Limited sugar supply and the steady increase in prices have affected household sugar consumption while overall consumption remained same due to growing demand by the food industry (soft & fruit drinks, dairy & traditional sweets). Consumers such as bakeries, candy makers and local sweets account for about 60% of total sugar demand.
As far as the water shortage is concerned, the water table is decreasing due to negligible amount of rainfall, especially in Sindh which resulted into declining of groundwater; meanwhile, the yield of sugarcane crop tends to decrease. Unfortunately, the farmers who were completely relying on sugarcane crop have to consider an alternative approach or substitute for their income. Recently, due to water shortage, the farmers of Sindh had to cut their sugarcane crop and utilized it as grass because once they have planted it, there was no solution of it, said Dr. Marri and Wajid Ali Hisbani (Sugarcane section, ARI, Tando Jam). As, most of the people in Pakistan rely on their farming as their source of income, it was really heartbreaking to even imagine them cutting the sugarcane crop and using it as a grass due to water shortage and inefficient water resources management system.
In addition, if we look at the data, for 2009-2010, sugarcane has been sown in the area of 943,000 hectares; the production was 8.4% lower than last year. Its production for year 2009-10 is estimated at 49.4 million tons, against 50.5 million tons last year. This indicates a decline of 1.3% over the production of last year. Main factors contributed in less production was maximum area under wheat crop during 2008-2009 which restricted the acres for sugarcane, shortage of canal water and realization of low price in last season also discouraged the farmers to grow more sugarcane crop. The decrease in sugarcane area and lower production during the last few years are due to the scarcity of irrigation water, significant increase in minimum support prices competing crops (wheat and rice), inadequate water resources, and higher inputs cost. Moreover the internal dispute between Pakistan’s sugarcane growers and processors also plagued the industry, for instance, delaying the crushing season, buying sugarcane at less than the support price, and withholding payments hurt the farmer’s profitability. On the other hand, sugar processors complain that farmers grow unapproved varieties which produce low sucrose content resulting in lower sugar production and recovery rates. Despite the industry’s troubles, the tighter sugar supplies have led to higher sugar prices and benefited sugar growers. It is predicted that, this trend continues to grow.
To assist sugar processors in the economy the ministry of food and agriculture and the ministry of industries and production are in consultation with Pakistan Sugar mills association (PSMA) to find strategies of making sugar operations run more efficiently. Sugarcane prices have been on rise since May 2008 and the prices are expected to increase about Rs.60 in coming years. As far as the future is concerned, the retail prices will heavily depend upon timely imports & prices in international market. In terms of production policies, the federal government does not set the prices; instead it authorizes provincial governments to set the sugarcane prices with consultation of both sugar industry and farmer organizations. Due to increasing population at annual rate of 2.05%, and by the year 2020 the country’s population will be 212.1 million which means that the yield must increase by at least 150 tons/ha of sugarcane. The water availability of sugarcane crop is almost static over past few years. Water supply continues to decline in sugarcane growing
areas. There is high need to maintain the production of sugarcane by efficiently managing water resources. Soon, water will be the limiting factor, reducing the growth affecting the yield.
Moreover, Dr. Marri and Wajid Ali of Agriculture Research Institute, Tando Jam, gave some valuable suggestions that as we are already suffering from water scarcity, we must think of another crop which needs low quantity of water, and like other developed countries; the agriculture departments and various research institutes of Pakistan must come up with good strategies to resolve problems of sugarcane crop, water availability and reliability as sugarcane industry is playing a vital role in improving the agriculture sector and enhancing the economy of Pakistan. It is predicted that in the year of 2025 there will be scarcity of water in Pakistan and as sugarcane production is highly dependent on water, in the future there will be no sugar industry, and when there are no sugar industries we have to import it and unfortunately we are not able to do that either because we are already in debt of 24211 PKR Billion in June of 2018 and we are not in position of another debt.