Farmers have announced that they do not need seed for wheat crop as crucial sowing time has lapsed in some areas of Sindh and instead called on the government to supply sunflower seed to produce this oilseed crop and curtail massive imports.
The announcement was made at an executive committee meeting of the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) on Friday, which censured the government for failing to timely distribute the wheat seed.
The Sindh government was providing free seed and fertiliser worth Rs4 billion for small farmers who lost their crops in monsoon rains and floods this year. Farmers having up to four acres of land were given 200 kg of urea and two bags of seeds.
SCA Vice-President Mir Imdad Talpur said the ideal time for wheat sowing was by mid- December in many parts of Sindh. “Not only seed supply was delayed, but stagnant rainwater has also not been drained from a good part of flooded districts.”
He said the area of land where wheat could not be cultivated would be sown with sunflower to make up for the loss suffered in both the cropping seasons – first due to flood devastation in Kharif season and then delay in sowing during Rabi.
Farmers also expressed concern over slow purchase of sugarcane by the mills as a member claimed that only 11 out of 32 mills of the province had started cane crushing so far.
The Sindh government had set November 1 as the date for starting the crushing season.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 17th, 2011.
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