Sindh Chamber of Agriculture fears decline in wheat production this season

Growers demand government stop sale of substandard seeds

HYDERABAD: The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) has expressed fear that wheat production may decrease as the crop is not receiving required water for irrigation.

In a statement issued after the SCA meeting in Hyderabad on Sunday, the chamber complained of severe water scarcity in the command area of the Nara and Rohri canals, which irrigate around five million acres of land.

Growers pointed out during the meeting that the delayed crushing of sugar cane crop due to the standoff between farmers and sugar mill owners had already affected the sowing of wheat crop. The timely sowing of wheat in 2016-17 resulted in a bumper crop of six million tons in Sindh in 2017. However, farmers fear that due to water shortage and delayed wheat sowing, the province seems unlikely to sustain the same quantity of the harvest this year.



The meeting, which was presided over by SCA General Secretary Zahid Hussain Bhurgari, also asked the government to stop sale of spurious seeds which were destroying crops. The farmers specifically referred to the cotton seed from Punjab as particularly harmful for Sindh's crop. They asked the government to make its seed-producing departments functional and stop the sale of substandard and harmful seeds.

Farmers' representatives from Karachi, Sanghar, Sukkur and Ghotki districts attended the meeting via video link.