Wheat growers fear short supply of jute bags

Fear crop decay if harvest is not packed on time.

HYDERABAD:

Wheat growers of lower Sindh are afraid of losing their crop due to short supply of gunny bags.

In a meeting of the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) here on Friday, growers from Matiari, Tando Allahyar, Badin, Thatta and Mirpurkhas districts expressed concern over the delay in supply of gunny bags, which will facilitate procurement of the commodity by the government only.

They told the meeting that wheat harvest has begun in Tando Jan Muhammad from March 15 while in Tando Allahyar and Matiari the process started from March 27.

The Sindh Agriculture Department had expected wheat sowing in the province on 1.1 million hectares with per acre yield of around 1.44 tons, while total harvest was expected to be 3.8 million tons. In lower Sindh’s Tando Allahyar and Matiari districts, wheat is produced as a primary crop.

“Twelve million gunny bags are required for packing and transportation of wheat in Sindh,” said SCA General Secretary Nabi Bux Sathio. He maintained that presently the government was using last year’s stock of bags which was around five per cent of the province’s demand.

“The government says that it has issued tenders for supply of gunny bags at a time when harvesting has already begun,” Sathio said.

Muhammad Anwar Bachani of the chamber said that wheat harvest would be in full swing from the first week of April. Pointing towards the delay in opening wheat procurement centres, Bachani warned that the crop was being exposed to twin dangers. “On the one hand, we don’t have bags to stock and on the other hand growers cannot sell their produce at procurement centres,” he added.

On a different note, the growers rejected the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority’s (Ogra) decision on fuel price increase. They stressed that while they were protesting against the withdrawal of subsidies and levy of new taxes, a new financial bottleneck in the form of exorbitant diesel price has emerged.

According to them, the surge in petroleum prices, besides affecting the growers, would lead to food price inflation at a time when the economy was already battling with various financial pressures.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 2^nd,  2011.