Growers Demand Fixing Of Wheat Procurement Price At Rs 1,500

HYDERABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 30th Dec, 2018 ) :The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) Sunday demanded of the Sindh Government to fix the procurement price of wheat crop at Rs1,500 per 40 kilograms, owing to inflated cost of agricultural inputs including fertilizer, diesel and seeds.

A meeting of the SCA, chaired by its President Qabool Muhammad Khatian here, also urged the Federal government to waive loans of the farmers in the drought hit and crop affected areas.

The meeting asked the Sindh Government to increase the wheat support price from existing Rs1,300 to Rs.1,500 in view of the rising cost of agriculture inputs and the enhanced cost of cultivation.

Speaking on the occasion, Khatian said the price of Rs1,300 per 40 kg was fixed in 2012, whereas the prices of fertilizer, diesel, seeds and other agricultural inputs had consistently increased since then.

Citing that water storage in Tarbela Dam had reached nearly dead level of 1,402 feet, the SCA observed that water shortage for winter cultivation had become inevitable. As the sowing season started in Sindh 45 to 60 days ahead, it could be supplied water both from Tarbela and Mangla dams. "The farmers in Sindh already suffered a lot due to water shortage in the outgoing season," said Khatian.

The meeting expressed concern over the low prices of potato and tomato crops.

as their growers were not even able to recover their investment.They demanded that the government should allow export of the two crops to protect the farmers from suffering further financial losses.

The meeting also expressed concern on the proposed of auction of agricultural lands belonging to the farmers who had defaulted payment of debts to the Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan. They appealed to the government to keep in view the issues of water shortage and low crop prices besides drought, and order a survey in that regard so that it could waive off the loans and prevent the defaulters' agricultural land from being sold.

The meeting noted that the subsidized tractors, whose draw was held by the provincial government six months ago, had not yet been handed over to the farmers. They demanded of the Sindh Government to immediately hand over the tractors to the farmers.

SCA's General Secretary Zahid Hussain Bhurgari, Syed Aijaz Nabi Shah, Asghar Khan Noonari, Mir Abdul Karim Talpur, Raees Murad Ali Khan Nizamani, Haji Shahzado Khan Chajjan and other office bearers and members of the chamber attended the meeting. The farmers from Karachi, Sukkur, Sanghar and Ghotki attended through the video link.