According to the plan suggested by President Asif Ali Zardari following his meeting with growers more than a month ago, the government would provide seeds and fertiliser free of charge to flood-hit farmers, working mainly on the right bank of Indus river.
Growers in Shikarpur and Kandhkot said they lost everything including the paddy crop in the floods, but have not yet received any government support for sunflower sowing.
“We were told that the government will give us seeds, fertilisers and DAP (di-ammonium phosphate) but still no one has contacted us although our names are in the list of flood victims,” said grower Hanif Soomro of Kandhkot district.
Another grower, Imdad Ali Lund of the Hajan Khan Lund district in Jacobabad said that the irrigation network including canals has been damaged and since there is no water they cannot cultivate the crop. “We are looking forward to government support, but it seems just an announcement,” he said.
Sources in the agriculture department told The Express Tribune that the sunflower sowing season starts from October and ends in January and growers in lower Sindh, which remained unaffected by the floods, have cultivated the crop.
“We had asked the president and the provincial government that even if the irrigation water is not available to farmers for sowing in the current Rabi season, given that most of the irrigation network is damaged, sunflower could be sown on lands having residual moisture in the paddy-growing area,” said Muhammad Nawaz Shah, General Secretary Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB).
“We can reduce our import bill by producing edible oil through sunflower production on 1.5 million acres. It is currently grown on just 500,000 acres,” he said.
Sources in the agriculture department said that more than 100,000 acres of land have been targeted for the crop in flood-affected areas. Sources went on to say that presently the government of Sindh’s target is to grow sunflower on 650,000 acres and has fixed the support price at Rs2,000 per 40 kg.
Talking to The Express Tribune, Secretary for Agriculture Agha Jan Akhtar said that the Sindh government has inked an agreement with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for financing the total estimated cost of fertiliser and seeds, which comes to about $15 million.
The sunflower cultivation programme will be launched by the government through different organisations including the SAB, the Rural Support Programme Network (RSPN) and the Sindh Rural Support Organisation (SRSO).
“It is not easy to identify the actual victims and this has caused some delay in starting the project,” Akhtar said. “We can grow sunflower till February,” he responded when asked about the delay in sowing.
Members of SAB and SRSO have confirmed reports about the agreement and said that seven districts have been identified for promoting sunflower cultivation.
SRSO CEO Dr Sono Khangharani said that the sowing of the crop starts from December 15 and the SRSO has estimated a minimum yield of 20 maunds per acre and set a target of 93,240 acres for cultivation.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 5th, 2010.
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