Low sugarcane prices, growers face difficulties
(Baonghean) -The 2012-2013 sugarcane crushing season is considered to have abundant output and good productivity. However, the slow harvest progress, long actual crushing time, and the factory's reluctance to purchase sugarcane from farmers are posing many difficulties in sugarcane planting for the new crop in the Song Lam sugarcane raw material area.
At this time, more than 200 hectares of sugarcane of Hoa Son people (Anh Son) have been purchased by Song Lam Sugar Factory. In the sugarcane fields, most of the early harvested areas have been left behind and replanted by people, and the sugarcane has begun to sprout. However, there are many areas of late harvested sugarcane that have just begun to sprout, and some have even been plowed and tilled. Ms. Phan Thi Mui, hamlet 3 - Hoa Son, who has been attached to 7 sao of sugarcane for nearly 10 years, said: "This year, only 4 sao of sugarcane were purchased by the factory at the beginning of the harvest season (October of last year), sold for 900,000 VND/ton, the remaining 3 sao had a yield of over 15 tons, a yield of 5 tons/ha, because they had to wait too long in the field to be harvested, the sugarcane flowered, grew branches, and had many impurities, and in the end, it was only sold for 860,000 VND/ton.
In previous years, the factory bought all the sugarcane after 3-4 months, this year it lasted nearly 7 months, so investing in and taking care of the new crop of sugarcane is very laborious and irregular." According to Mr. Nguyen Van Duc, Hamlet 3 Hoa Son, the price of sugarcane is low, some households are selling sugarcane slowly, only getting 810 thousand VND/ton, while the price of fertilizer materials invested in sugarcane cultivation is increasingly high. Compared to a few years ago, the cost of biofertilizer has nearly doubled, from 180 thousand VND/quintal to 300 thousand VND/quintal. In particular, the slow sugarcane harvest makes it difficult to mobilize labor. Many households that cannot grow sugarcane as planned will arrange to switch to growing other crops with short growth cycles.
People of Thanh Son commune (Anh Son) take care of the new sugarcane crop.
Mr. Nguyen Thanh My - Head of the Hoa Son Commune Agriculture Department, said: In general, in the recent sugarcane harvest, sugarcane was waiting for factory trucks for 10-16 months (previously up to 12 months), nearly 40/200 hectares of sugarcane of the people signed the initial contract when harvesting was delayed by 10 days. In particular, in hamlets 1, 4, 5, 7 and hamlet 10, the sugarcane flagged, the quality of the sugarcane decreased a lot. Due to the long sugarcane harvest time, currently, in some areas such as hamlet 6, the new crop of sugarcane has developed into stalks, while in other hamlets, people have just officially plowed and cultivated. Compared to the general sugarcane planting progress as before, these areas are several months behind. This causes the sugarcane areas serving the new crop to develop differently, and the sugarcane plants to develop unevenly. Late sugarcane planting areas to increase productivity require people to pay attention and make large investments. Currently, people cannot implement the 30 hectares of alluvial land planned for sugarcane conversion for the new crop as planned.
In Thanh Son commune - the key sugarcane raw material area of Song Lam Sugar Factory, there are over 110 hectares of sugarcane for business. Currently, along the raw material route, people are planting cassava and corn instead of sugarcane. Mr. Ho Ngoc Nhuong - Chairman of Thanh Son Commune People's Committee, said: In the last harvest, the thing that people are most concerned about is the unfair sugarcane purchasing mechanism of the factory. Purchasing sugarcane according to sugar reserves, excluding too many impurities, and the payment to people is slower... has affected the people's psychology of growing sugarcane. Currently, the whole commune has over 15 hectares of raw sugarcane in the areas around village 5, village 3 and village 7 that have been arranged by people to grow corn and cassava. According to Mr. Nhuong, if sugarcane prices do not increase, sugarcane growers will certainly gradually reduce the area in the next sugarcane crops.
Discussing the above difficulties, Mr. Le Thanh An - Deputy Director of Song Lam Sugarcane Joint Stock Company, shared: In the 2012-2013 crushing season, the factory's raw material area had over 1,700 hectares of sugarcane for business, sugarcane output reached 100,000 tons, an increase compared to the plan and the same period. However, sugar prices dropped to 14,000 VND/kg. In the past two years, sugar has been very difficult to sell, combined with the factory's lack of working capital, which is the reason why the factory had to adjust sugarcane prices down. Meanwhile, farmers' psychology is not yet familiar with the law of sugarcane prices following sugar prices. Together with farmers to overcome difficulties, the Factory has a policy of reviewing the new planting area of households that did not plant last year, including support for microbial fertilizers, plows, and sugarcane seeds. Lending interest-free microbial organic fertilizers to farmers, and households that initially planted large sugarcane areas were loaned seedling shoots to plant in time for the season.
What people want is that in the coming time, the Factory will calculate to have a plan to purchase sugarcane in a timely manner, ensuring fairness for sugarcane growers. Avoid the situation where cut sugarcane has to wait for a long time in the field for trucks, affecting productivity, quality and especially the sustainable development of raw material areas in the future.
Article and photos: Luong Mai
