SCA Intimidates To Scale Up Protest Against Import Of Onion, Tomato

The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA), a farmers' lobbying group, has given a 6-day deadline to the government to ban the import of tomatoes and onions and allow export of the same crops

HYDERABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 19th Dec, 2020 ) :The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA), a farmers' lobbying group, has given a 6-day deadline to the government to ban the import of tomatoes and onions and allow export of the same crops.

The SCA here Saturday took out a protest rally, led by its President Syed Miran Muhammad Shah, which started from the Sindh University Old Campus and culminated outside the press club. The chamber warned that if their demands were not accepted they would take recourse to an intensified form of protest in which they would block the entry of the trucks carrying imported tomatoes and onions for delivery in Sindh.

Speaking on the occasion, Shah said the protest was against the government's import policy which had severely affected the farmers of Sindh who had produced bumper crops of tomatoes and onions. He alleged that the government knew well that the bumper crops of the 2 vegetables were going to be produced in Sindh and despite that it allowed the imports from Iran and Afghanistan.

"The imports hit the market price of the 2 crops and have plunged the growers in financial straits," he said.

Shah rejected the government's pretext of shortage of the 2 crops in the country for allowing the imports, saying that the country was in a position to export those crops.

"Sindh's farmers are already suffering from the impacts of the water shortage and torrential rains which they suffered earlier this year. The low price for their crops has only added further to their financial losses," he lamented.

Zahid Hussain Bhurgari, SCA's General Secretary, warned that if the government did not ban import of the 2 crops by December 25, Sindh's farmers would not allow even a single truck of imported tomatoes and onions to enter Sindh.

SCA's Senior Vice President Nabi Bux Sathio, Vice President Muhammad Khan Sarejo and other office bearers also addressed the rally. They said Sindh's farmers were always made to suffer low prices of wheat, sugarcane, cotton, tomato and onion crops amid low subsidies and rising cost of cultivation.