Gulam Rabbani :
It was a winter evening in the Bengali month of Poush. Sugarcane labourer Md Anwarul was cutting sugarcane in the field with the Sun on his head in an angular way. He was singing a melodious Bengali folk song with all devotions and emotions to charm all those close to him.
Basically, it was a song of emotions and sorrows. The reason of his singing song was that the sugarcane mills began productions after a lull of 10 months. Sugarcanes are cut from the fields for threshing first. The silver grain of the sugar is coming out after passing the mills different processes.
When a mills is declared lay off, workers become gloomy, know not what to do or how to feed the family members. So, when productions resume, their joys know no bound. Likewise when the Darshana sugar mills resumed production after a lull of 10 months, emotions certainly overcame all workers like Anwarul.
Local language of Darshana has a special pull. It sounds sweet to hear. Anwarul and his co-workers said that their income will be higher this year. Because, sugarcane production this year is more than that of the last year. Producing more sugarcane means more work and more income.
Anwarul is happy getting Tk 210 per day as his wage. The Managing Director of Carew and Co Engineer Md Enayet Hossain is also happy as production pace of sugar has increased. He thought that their bad days were over.
Indication of a truth is found in the speeches of Enayet Hossain and that is ‘sugar industry is passing hard days.’ The government is counting a large amount of loss every year to run the sugar mills of the country.
There are 15 large and small sugar mills in the country. Among them, only the Carew and Co can give revenues to the government. This mills earned Tk seven crore as net profit last year. But this profit was not earned only from producing the sugar. Carew and Co is the only sugar mills where some by-products also produced.
Recently they started a new project to produce organic fertilizer. This fertilizer is produced with the waste of the sugar mills. Basically, by-products are the one of the main reasons of profit. But the other sugar mills’ condition is very sad as they produce sugar only.
This loss was not seen in the past. It’s a scenario of the recent years. Now farmers are not cultivating sugarcane which is the main reason of the loss. Even now they are not interested to cultivate sugarcane. The production of sugar has fallen in the country.
Agriculturist K M Suhrawardi explained why the farmers are not interested to cultivate sugarcane now-a-days. He said, “Farmers get a less profit cultivating sugarcane. Because, only one crop occupied the land all over the year. It takes 12 to 14 months from seed planting to harvest sugarcane. But a farmer can cultivate other crops three times a year in the same land. The farmers are more interested to cultivate Paddy, Pulses and even other vegetable items. So, they have reduced sugarcane cultivation.”
“It creates a trouble situation. No Sugar mills will count a loss if the sugarcane supply is sufficient,” he said.
Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation have taken some initiatives to overcome this situation. Corporation’s Chairman Md Delwar Hossain is working to influence the farmers to cultivate sugarcane after he has taken the charge.
They are trying to convince the farmers about the role of sugar mills in the socio-economic development of the country. Besides, the agriculturists of the corporation are giving new tips to the farmers so that they can cultivate other crops along with the sugarcane. Now the farmers are cultivating other crops in the sugarcane fields.
Engineer Enayet Hossain said that their new initiative is fruitful. Sugarcane output increased in the last two years. Carew and Co produced 72 thousand tons and 78 thousand tons of sugar in the last two years respectively. The company targeted to produce 90 thousand tons of sugar this year. The production rate of the other sugar mills of the country is also increasing.
Sugar mills are not saving only the industry and the workers, it is also saving the culture of the hundreds of years and balance of socio-economic conditions of the people of sugar mills related areas. That is why many person think, the government should give subsidies to run the industry though it is facing the loss.
Sources said, a couple of business group are trying to shut down the sugar mills, so that they can be profited by importing sugar from abroad.
Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation’ Chairman Md Delwar Hossain said, “I took the charge of the corporation in many disadvantages. Now we are trying to bring a boon in this industry with the support of some officials of the corporation. We succeeded with several steps. Hope, we will be returned of the lost heritage of the industry within a short time.”
“We have to work in various adversities. We cannot pay the workers’ wage at a time. We have manpower crisis. In all, the situation is not favorable yet. But if we can fulfill the target of sugar, we will be able to reduce these problems,” he added.
It was a winter evening in the Bengali month of Poush. Sugarcane labourer Md Anwarul was cutting sugarcane in the field with the Sun on his head in an angular way. He was singing a melodious Bengali folk song with all devotions and emotions to charm all those close to him.
Basically, it was a song of emotions and sorrows. The reason of his singing song was that the sugarcane mills began productions after a lull of 10 months. Sugarcanes are cut from the fields for threshing first. The silver grain of the sugar is coming out after passing the mills different processes.
When a mills is declared lay off, workers become gloomy, know not what to do or how to feed the family members. So, when productions resume, their joys know no bound. Likewise when the Darshana sugar mills resumed production after a lull of 10 months, emotions certainly overcame all workers like Anwarul.
Local language of Darshana has a special pull. It sounds sweet to hear. Anwarul and his co-workers said that their income will be higher this year. Because, sugarcane production this year is more than that of the last year. Producing more sugarcane means more work and more income.
Anwarul is happy getting Tk 210 per day as his wage. The Managing Director of Carew and Co Engineer Md Enayet Hossain is also happy as production pace of sugar has increased. He thought that their bad days were over.
Indication of a truth is found in the speeches of Enayet Hossain and that is ‘sugar industry is passing hard days.’ The government is counting a large amount of loss every year to run the sugar mills of the country.
There are 15 large and small sugar mills in the country. Among them, only the Carew and Co can give revenues to the government. This mills earned Tk seven crore as net profit last year. But this profit was not earned only from producing the sugar. Carew and Co is the only sugar mills where some by-products also produced.
Recently they started a new project to produce organic fertilizer. This fertilizer is produced with the waste of the sugar mills. Basically, by-products are the one of the main reasons of profit. But the other sugar mills’ condition is very sad as they produce sugar only.
This loss was not seen in the past. It’s a scenario of the recent years. Now farmers are not cultivating sugarcane which is the main reason of the loss. Even now they are not interested to cultivate sugarcane. The production of sugar has fallen in the country.
Agriculturist K M Suhrawardi explained why the farmers are not interested to cultivate sugarcane now-a-days. He said, “Farmers get a less profit cultivating sugarcane. Because, only one crop occupied the land all over the year. It takes 12 to 14 months from seed planting to harvest sugarcane. But a farmer can cultivate other crops three times a year in the same land. The farmers are more interested to cultivate Paddy, Pulses and even other vegetable items. So, they have reduced sugarcane cultivation.”
“It creates a trouble situation. No Sugar mills will count a loss if the sugarcane supply is sufficient,” he said.
Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation have taken some initiatives to overcome this situation. Corporation’s Chairman Md Delwar Hossain is working to influence the farmers to cultivate sugarcane after he has taken the charge.
They are trying to convince the farmers about the role of sugar mills in the socio-economic development of the country. Besides, the agriculturists of the corporation are giving new tips to the farmers so that they can cultivate other crops along with the sugarcane. Now the farmers are cultivating other crops in the sugarcane fields.
Engineer Enayet Hossain said that their new initiative is fruitful. Sugarcane output increased in the last two years. Carew and Co produced 72 thousand tons and 78 thousand tons of sugar in the last two years respectively. The company targeted to produce 90 thousand tons of sugar this year. The production rate of the other sugar mills of the country is also increasing.
Sugar mills are not saving only the industry and the workers, it is also saving the culture of the hundreds of years and balance of socio-economic conditions of the people of sugar mills related areas. That is why many person think, the government should give subsidies to run the industry though it is facing the loss.
Sources said, a couple of business group are trying to shut down the sugar mills, so that they can be profited by importing sugar from abroad.
Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation’ Chairman Md Delwar Hossain said, “I took the charge of the corporation in many disadvantages. Now we are trying to bring a boon in this industry with the support of some officials of the corporation. We succeeded with several steps. Hope, we will be returned of the lost heritage of the industry within a short time.”
“We have to work in various adversities. We cannot pay the workers’ wage at a time. We have manpower crisis. In all, the situation is not favorable yet. But if we can fulfill the target of sugar, we will be able to reduce these problems,” he added.
