Existence of Sugar Mills.

Premier Sugar Mills Mardan was the largest sugar mill in Asia in 1949. Its construction began before the creation of Pakistan, and it had its first crushing in 1949. However, currently, the sugar mill operates one day and has to be closed the next day due to a lack of sugarcane supply. Farmers in the area prefer to make molasses instead of giving their crops to sugar mills. They claim that the price of molasses is higher while sugar mill owners purchase sugarcane at very low prices. On the other hand, sugar mill owners state that due to a shortage of sugarcane, the mill runs intermittently, and it can operate smoothly if they get sugarcane according to their requirements.

Shaukat Batiani, a 40-year-old resident of Malakand and a sugarcane farmer, used to sell his sugarcane to Mardan Sugar Mill, but the owner started to harass him and other farmers, did not pay them, so he started selling his sugarcane to Mardan Jaggery makers in 2018 and received 100% more benefits than the sugar mill Mardan. Meanwhile, Rizwan Khan, a molasses merchant in Mardan, stated that sugarcane farmers preferred making molasses...