HYDERABAD:The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture, a farmers’ lobbying group, has requested the provincial government to notify
Rs 4,000 per maund wheat support price as delay on its part was causing uncertainty among the wheat growers.
Speaking to a press conference at the office of SCA here on Saturday, the SCA’s President Syed Miran Muhammad Shah recalled that more than 2 months ago the Sindh Chief Minister had announced that the support price would be doubled from Rs 2,000 in 2022 to Rs 4,000 in 2023.
He pointed out the government had set the target of cultivating wheat crop on 3 million acres but it could not drain rain and flood water from many parts of the wheat growing belt because of which the crop had been grown only on around 2.1 million acres.
He said last year the country produced 26.2 million tons of wheat against the national demand of 28 million tons which resulted in a shortfall of 1.8 million tons.
The chamber’s president said many rural areas in Mirpurkhas, Tando Allahyar, Noshehro Feroze and Dadu districts were still under water.
He also warned that in the event of a serious shortage of wheat the flour price was likely to go past Rs 200 per kilogram.
He drew the government’s attention towards cotton and dates crops, saying both the exportable crops needed the government help to enable the farmers to stand on their feet again.
He complained the black marketeers were charging excessive prices for the fertilizer and urea and that the government departments which were supposed to regulate the dealers were not performing their duties properly.
The office bearers of the chamber including Zahid Bhurgari and Nabi Bux Sathio, among others, were present on the occasion.