KARACHI, Jan 14: The Sindh agriculture department has planned to establish agriculture crop processing estates in all the districts of the province to promote the cultivation of value-added crops.

Besides, an agriculture processing zone is also being set up on 20 acres opposite the new Subzimandi.

“All these agriculture estates will have incentives like those provided to industrial zones across the country,” said Hasan Ali Chaniho, Sindh Minister of Agriculture, Food, Livestock, Fisheries and Wildlife.

Speaking at a press conference here on Monday, he said farmers would be liable to export 80 per cent of the crop product, and they might sell the rest in the domestic market.

“A team of experts from Spain is due to arrive soon to provide consultancy service in this regard,” said the minister.

He said the agriculture zone would be the first and unique in South Asia. Value-added crops included, especially sugar beet and jujube (Ber).

“Sugar beet is highly recoverable crop for sugar as compared to sugar cane and jujube fruit is much in demand in the UAE,” he said.

Referring to the feasibility of these two crops, he said successful experiments and profits had been recorded in the NWFP and Sindh by farmers.

Referring to the Pak-American Business Society, he said overseas Pakistani investors residing in the USA were ready to invest in agri-based industrial projects also.

Outlining the performance of various departments under him, he said the agriculture sector was performing well. This year the department arranged provision of more than 100,000 passbooks for farmers who had no passbooks and its availability helped them get loans from the Agriculture Development Bank of Pakistan that disbursed Rs5 billion among farmers who received passbooks.

The minister said a ban had been imposed this season on rice cultivation on the right bank of the River Indus to promote cotton production in Jacobabad, Shikarpur and Larkana districts.

He said cotton had been sown on 4,616 hectares during the 2001-2002 season in the province as against 35 hectares last year.—APP