HYDERABAD: The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) has expressed great dismay over Sindh government’s delay in issuance of the Peasant Cards.
A meeting of the SCA, chaired by its President Syed Miran Muhammad Shah here on Saturday decried that the farmers in the other provinces were benefiting from the Peasant Card. “But in Sindh despite allocation of the budget for the cards, there is
no progress,” Shah lamented, adding that the provincial government’s lethargy had spread disappointment among the agriculturists. He observed that their counterparts in Punjab and other provinces were benefiting from the card by availing subsidized fertilizer and agricultural machinery. “The Sindh government should also take urgent measures to issue the Cards,” he urged.
On behalf of Sindh’s farmers, Shah requested the federal government to take measures for export of onion and chilies as the province’s farmers had cultivated bumper crops in the ongoing season.
The President SCA said that the price of cotton crop had peaked at Rs.6,000 per maund before the cotton millers brought it down by 33 percent to Rs.4,000 citing the rain losses. He said that in addition, one kilogram was also being deducted in measurement of per maund on the weight scale.
He urged the government to take notice, conduct inquiry, fix responsibility and punish those responsible for the situation in order to stop the exploitation of the cotton farmers at the hands of the millers. The Chamber expresses grave concern over persistent shortage of irrigation water in the tail-end regions of Sindh’s canals and this situation exists even after declaring low flood at the Guddu barrage, he added.
Shah claimed that the tail end areas of all the canals flowing from Guddu, Sukkur and Kotri barrages were reporting shortage of water. “The artificial shortfall and water rotation is existing,” he noted.
The farmers demanded of the new Sindh Irrigation Minister Jam Khan Shoro to take immediate notice and address the issue. The chamber also called for fixing the support price of rice at Rs 1,600 per 40 kilograms and that of the Basmati rice at Rs. 3,000 per 40 kg.
Shah pointed out that the rice farmers were being currently paid between Rs.1,100 to Rs.1,200 per 40 kg even though the same crop was fetching between Rs.1,400 to Rs.1,500 last year.
He also expressed deep concern over the rising prices of fuels and agricultural inputs like DAP fertilizer whose price had increased to Rs.5,800 per bag from Rs.3,600 per bag 10 months ago.
The farmers said the federal government had announced subsidy on fertilizer but instead the rates of fertilizer had exponentially increased.
The Chamber announced that a seminar titled ‘agricultural biotechnology and environmental changes’ had been scheduled for August 30 in Hyderabad with the support of the US embassy.