The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) on Monday appealed to the federal government to exclusively grant a loan of Rs10 billion to farmers for their financial support and strengthen agricultural economy in Sindh, and expressed profound concerns over a significant reduction in the cultivation of cotton, vegetables, paddy and many other crops due to an acute shortage of water supply to the irrigation fields.
Reportedly, SCA’s representatives held an emergent meeting in Hyderabad in which its president Qabool Muhammad Khatian gave a telephonic speech in which he demanded ‘payment of arrears of Rs 4 billion’ from owners of sugar mills to the growers on the priority basis.
They asserted that water scarcity, particularly in the months of March, April and May, has heavily affected yields of the crops, thus causing massive financial losses to the growers.
Furthermore, they demanded another agricultural loans of Rs100,000 or below for small farmers to enable them to recover from the effects of fluctuating crop prices, and said that they should be given a three-year repayment schedule to ease the debt burden on them.
Moreover, they expressed fears over the consequences of a sudden decrease in cotton price by Rs1000 per 40 kilos in Karachi while the international market rate remained unchanged.
The meeting also slated suspension of water supply from the Nara canal for the last two weeks, and said that paddy crops were badly affected to the lack of water.
Meanwhile, farmers accused Irrigation department’s officers of inefficiency and maladministration, and claimed that there was sufficient amount of water in river and canals but was not being supplied to their fields.
They demanded a stern action to be taken against corrupt officers in the department.
Ad Spend Your Summer With Charming … UkrainianCharm Try now Besides, SCA general secretary Zahid Bhurgri, Mir Imdad Talpur, Asghar Noonari, Mir Abdul Karim Talpur, Muhammad Khan Sarejo, Haji Nisar Memon, Murad Ali Khan Nizamani and others were also present in the meeting.
Published in Daily Times, August 28th 2018.