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HYDERABAD, Jan 18: The Sindh government has decided to reduce farmers' contribution to lining of their watercourses to 10 per cent of the total cost plus labour wages.
This was said by Sindh agriculture secretary Sabhago Khan Jatoi while presiding over a meeting of field officers of the agriculture extension department here on Saturday.
He announced 42,000 watercourses would be lined in Sindh, which would help make 40 per cent more water available. The secretary said the registration of 26 pesticide companies of Sindh, which had failed to reply to show-cause notices, would be suspended.
He said action would be taken against companies manufacturing spurious pesticides to protect interests of farmers. He said it would be ensured the companies supplied quality pesticides.
Mr Jatoi said a committee- comprising the plant protection director, agriculture EDOs of Mirpurkhas and Hyderabad and Khairpur district agriculture officer- had been constituted to offer proposals to improve field checking of pesticides and their sample testing.
The secretary said a project was being launched to improve crop reporting and estimation in the province, which would be supervised by him. He further said another project would also be initiated to encourage the use of modern technologies in farm sector through electronic and print media.
He directed the field officers to improve the working of their department, keep liaison with farmers, introduce better technologies and improve government farms.
ADMISSIONS: The director, admissions, University of Sindh, has extended the last date for submitting forms of admission to different courses at the Institute of Information Technology, evening programme, to Jan 31.
EDUCATION: The dean, faculty of crop production, Sindh Agriculture University, Professor Dr Haji Khan Abro, has held the government, administration, teachers and parents responsible for the poor literacy rate in the country.
He was speaking at a seminar organized by the Sindh Rural Development Society and Sindh NGOs federation in Musa Khatian near here on Saturday. He regretted that a large number of schools in the interior of Sindh were lying closed.
Mr Abro said that political interference andcorruption as well asindifferent attitude of parents had destroyed the education system and affected the quality of education.
