March 7: The number of farmers involved in sugarcane farming has declined by 35 percent due to the delay in payment by sugar mills, according to Nepal Sugar Mills Association (NSMA).

Kapilmuni Mainali, president of NSMA, informed that there used to be 100,000 farmers involved in commercial sugarcane farming but the number of farmers has declined by more than 35,000.

“More than 35,000 farmers have opted for other options while those currently involved in sugarcane farming have also cut down production,” Mainali said.

He said that Sugar mills denied payment to the farmers as their business got affected by imported sugar.

The country’s annual demand for sugar is about 380,000 metric tons.  Delay in payment to farmers has reduced the domestic production to 120,000 metric tons.  However, following the protest staged by sugarcane farmers, their outstanding dues have been paid, according to the defaulting sugar mills.

Due to decline in sugarcane production, industrialists say it has affected their production capacity.

“Because of the shortage of sugarcane, sugarmills were closed down this year way ahead at the time of harvesting sugarcane,” said Rajesh Kediya, director of Indushankar Sugar Mill, adding, “The controversy over payment has also caused shortage of sugarcane this year.” He said the production will increase this year onwards as the payment has been made.

As the production of sugarcane and sugar has declined in the country, import of sugar has been exponentially high. Sugar worth Rs 7.8 billion has been imported in the seven months of the current fiscal year which is an increment of 798 percent. In the last fiscal year, the import of sugar had declined by 14 percent.

Rajkumar Shrestha, president of Nepal Retailers Association, said sugar has been imported due to low domestic production. Delay in payment might also have its impact on increase in sugar import, Shrestha said.

“Last year, import of sugar was halted due to low consumption of domestic sugar while this year sugar import has increased due to low production of sugarcane.”

Meanwhile, traders involved in sugar import say the import has increased this year as the government lifted the restriction imposed on sugar import. Brajesh Kumar Jha, manager of Salt Trading Corporation Limited, said that the government had imposed restriction on sugar import during the last fiscal year but has lifted the restriction since the beginning of the current fiscal year month.

He said the domestic production can’t meet the demand so import of sugar is a must. According to him, sugar has been imported as per the demand.