HYDERABAD: APSEA to buy sunflower at Rs360 per 40kg
Bureau Report
HYDERABAD, Nov 10: The All Pakistan Solvent Extraction Association (APSEA) has held out an assurance to buy sunflower produce at Rs630 per 40 kg during the current fiscal year.
The APSEA held out the assurance at a meeting with the Pakistan Oilseed Development Board and the seed companies in Islamabad the other day.
The managing director of the PODB presided over the meeting.
Sources told Dawn last year the association had fixed the minimum purchase price at Rs560 per 40 kg.
The association also assured the meeting that solvent units were ready to sign contract with growers.
It was decided that to monitor the agreements, complaint cells would be established at the time of harvesting, which would take necessary action in case of a breach of the agreements.
The meeting also fixed targets of sunflower produce for the year 2002-2003 for the provinces.
According to reports, sunflower would be cultivated on 275,000 acres in Punjab, 150,000 acres in Sindh, 10,000 acres in NWFP and 15,000 acres in Balochistan.
The reports further said 597 tones of sunflower seed was available with the seed companies and if required, more seed would be imported.
The meeting also decided that a committee, comprising agricultural experts and seed companies, would be constituted to work out the agronomy of sunflower at different areas.
The APSEA was of the opinion there should be no change in the fiscal and import policy of the government in the oilseed sector during the year 2002-2003.
SUAA: The Sindh University Alumni Association (SUAA) will launch a campaign to register old students of the university.
This was decided at a meeting of the association held here the other day.
The meeting discussed the ways and means to enhance the membership of the association.
It decided to encourage members of the association to work with devotion for the cause of educational and cultural development of the community in general and the members in particular.
It also decided that the association would cooperate with the university authorities in development, expansion and improvement of the departments of the university.
The association vowed to explore employment opportunities for the old students and arrange scholarships for higher studies abroad.
It was also decided to publish a discipline-wise directory of the SUAA and organize annual functions.
It resolved to move the CBR for tax relief to the association on donations and grants to be received from its members and other sectors.
The vice-chancellor of the university and patron-in-chief of the SUAA, Mazharul Haq Siddiqui, who presided over the meeting, sanctioned Rs26,000 for the association.
