CAIRO: A possible standoff is brewing between the government and 5,000 sugarcane farmers in Upper Egypt who reportedly abandoned their plots to escape legal prosecution for not paying back debts to the Bank of Development and Agricultural Credit (BDAC). MP Abdul Rahaman Al Ghoul, chairman of the agricultural parliamentarian committee, who was elected as an independent for the Upper Egypt province of Qena in the last legislative elections, has threatened to lobby to secure the backing of as many as 100 MPs to involve Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif on the issue. Ghoul criticized what he said were unfair policies by the BDAC which forced thousands of sugarcane farmers in the provinces of Upper Egypt to default on their debts and abandon their agricultural plots out of fear of being sent to jail. The Daily Star Egypt spoke to owners of juiceries, who buy sugarcane from farmers to produce the popular sugarcane juice. They blamed the bank for its recent decisions to raise interest for loans by as much as 20%. Farmers are caught between the BDAC and the sugar factory in the Naga Hammadi, which failed to increase the price it pays for the farmers sugarcane production, said Salah Khalaf. 35-year-old Khalaf, like many Upper Egyptians who have settled in Cairo, was born in the Upper Egyptian province of Sohag, before moving to Cairo with his parents when he was 10. He said farmers in certain provinces like Qena are restricted by law to cultivate sugarcane and sell their crop exclusively to the sugar processing plant, which pays farmers prices set by the state. Therefore, farmers have no choice but to accept the price offered by the plant, which has not raised its purchase prices for a long time, he said. At the back of the juicer, several workers using machetes to cut and clean the cane before pressing it into juice said the sugarcane farmers perennial problem with the BDAC had forced many to escape to the capital and other delta cities to take up menial and unstable jobs. I personally know of many such cases, said one of the workers. Farmers are completely dependent on loans from BDAC; they use the money to buy fertilizers, seeds, and agricultural machinery. If the harvest was not good, or if the sugar plant didn't pay a good price; they fail to make profits, but, nevertheless, have no other choice but to borrow from BDAC again for the next season, and so on, until they accumulate big debts, and sometimes lose the ownership of their land, against the value of which they got the loans, he added. The emergence of this debate in parliament is viewed by analysts as one of the outcomes of the recent constitutional amendments that stipulated equality between all citizens. MPs are critical of the BDAC for waiving huge amounts of debts owed by big borrowers, some of whom escaped abroad after amassing huge loans, political analyst Muhammad Saeed Faiek said. MPs argue that if BDAC has decided to waive these debts on big borrowers, then it must do the same with small farmers as stipulated by the new amendments that there should be no discrimination among citizens when it comes to duties and right, he added.
