Pakistan s Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) and the noted German company Strube-Dieckmann (SD) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to promote cultivation of sugar beet for producing profitable sugar yields in the selected regions of Punjab and Sindh. Shahid Rashid, Chief Executive Officer, SMEDA, and Johannes Dieckmann, Managing Director, Strube Dieckmann signed the MoU, said a statement. The major objective of the MOU is to extend the milling season of sugar mills by processing sugar beet before and after sugarcane milling by managing potential fit of sugar beet in the cropping systems of the local farming community, particularly in a crop rotation with the local farmers. According to the MOU, SMEDA will coordinate the efforts of beet tech project together with provincial and federal related ministries and departments for promotion of sugar beet in the country. It will identify stakeholders from sugar industry, farmers and government for organizing technical and feed back meetings and will also conduct the pre-feasibility study both for crop agronomy and beet processing under SES cooperation scheme. Working under this MOU, Strube-Dieckmann will provide technical support in conducting initial crop trials for confidence building on the government research farms, sugar mills farms and private farmers fields. SD will also provide personnel and share costs for conducting pre-feasibility for modification of existing sugar plants and beet cultivation together with SMEDA initiated SES programme.
