The Sindh Abadgar Board has urged Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah to resume official notifications that open the sugarcane crushing season in Sindh and fix the crop’s buying price, saying the province has left growers exposed since those notices stopped.
In a letter to the chief minister on Monday, SAB President Mahmood Nawaz Shah asked the government to restart the process that sets when crushing may begin and what mills must pay for cane. The board framed the request as a return to a long-standing legal practice rather than a new demand.
Why the board wants notifications restored
Shah said the Sugar Factories Control Act, 1950, gives a framework for the industry’s orderly running. Under that process, he noted, the provincial government is meant to notify both the crushing season’s start date and the purchase price of sugarcane.
He recalled that since 2025 the Sindh government has not issued those notifications—something he described as happening for the first time in many decades. Without a notified season or price, he argued, growers are left at the mercy of sugar mills, which he said runs against the spirit of the law and tilts the balance toward the mills.
“If the government doesn’t notify the season or the price, the growers are left at the mercy of sugar mills,” Shah contended in the letter’s account of growers’ concerns.
Delayed starts and pressure on small farms
Shah pointed out that sugar mills used to begin crushing in October. Last year, after the government skipped the notification, mills started in December instead. That shift, he suggested, followed directly from the missing official calendar for the sugarcane crushing season in Sindh.
Small and medium-sized growers are the most worried, according to SAB. A majority of small growers, Shah said, have decided to plant wheat on land harvested from sugarcane—an early sign that some farmers are stepping away from cane while rules and rates stay unclear.
What SAB is asking the CM to do
On behalf of Sindh’s farmers, the board’s president asked Murad Ali Shah to resume notifications on the cane crushing season’s start and on fixing the procurement price. The appeal centres on restoring the provincial notices that once anchored both timing and price for the sugarcane crushing season in Sindh.
How the chief minister’s office responds, and whether fresh notices appear before mills set their own calendars again, will shape the next phase for cane growers across the province.
Timeline: what has happened so far
- Before the recent halt: Sugar mills in Sindh commonly started crushing in October under government notifications.
- From 2025: The provincial government stopped issuing notices that open the season and fix the cane purchase price—described by SAB as a first in many decades.
- Last year: Without a notification, sugar mills began crushing in December rather than October.
- Monday: SAB President Mahmood Nawaz Shah wrote to CM Syed Murad Ali Shah seeking a return to official season and price notifications.
Aasan alfaaz mein
Sindh Abadgar Board ne CM Murad Ali Shah se kaha hai ke ganne ki crushing season aur qeemat ki official notification phir se jari ki jaye. 2025 se yeh notifications band hain, jis se kisaan mills ki marzi par reh gaye. Pehle mills October mein shuru hoti thin, lekin pichhle saal December mein shuru huin. Bohot se chhote kisaan ab ganne ki jagah gehun laga rahe hain.
