The sugar crisis has become a significant challenge to Pakistan’s existence. Our obsession with increasing sugar production is depleting the country's valuable water reserves, all while inflicting recurring sugar crises and exacerbating the already alarming diabetes cases in Pakistan.

The National Food Policy 2018 calls for a reduction in the area under sugarcane cultivation to make room for other high-value crops like cotton. The recent agriculture census shows a decrease in sugarcane’s share in cropped areas. However, the final Kharif estimates published by the Crop Reporting Service, Agriculture Department, present another side of the coin: the cropped area of sugarcane has increased at the expense of cotton in South Punjab.

In 2011–12, the cotton cultivation area was over five million acres in the region. However, over the years, cotton acreage fell from 3.719 million acres in 2023–24 to 2.904 million acres in 2024–25 – a loss of 815,000 acres, nearly a 22 per cent decline in just one year. Meanwhile, sugarcane’s area under cultivation rose from 938,000 acres in 2023–24 to 977,000 acres in 2024–25, a 4.0 per cent increase, underscoring farmers’ tilt toward water- and profit-intensive crops. In Rahim Yar Khan district alone, sugarcane cultivation........

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