19 September 2004	Sunday	03 Shaban 1425

KARACHI, Sept 18: The Sindh Assembly was informed on Saturday that four agricultural training centres are imparting technical knowhow to farmers in the province on modern cultivation and for proper use of its input.

Out of the four, three centres are located in Sakrand while the fourth one is in Jacobabad with the name of Agriculture Training Institute while the three in Sakrand are: Sindh Institute for OFWM Training & Research, Lady Field Assistant Training Centre and Agriculture Training Institute.

This information was given to the House on Saturday by Agriculture Minister Arif Mustafa Jatoi in response to a question of Ms Nasreen Chandio.

In reply to a question by Mohammad Idrees Siddiqui, the minister informed that laser land levelling was an integrated part of "Sindh on-farm water management project" which was launched on Sept 7 with the assistance of World Bank. Under the project, 150 laser land levelling equipment will be provided to farmers at 50 per cent of its cost. For the first year of the project 30 laser land levelling equipment would be procured.

Out of 4,000 watercourses which would be improved under this project, 500 would be improved during the first year and repair of receivers can be done by the Agriculture Engineering wing in coordination with the supplier as and when required.

The House was also informed that no synthetic layer was being used in the lining project.

In response to a question by Abdul Qadir Soomro, the House was informed that there were 31 sugar mills in Sindh and in the crushing season 2003-2004, three mills ( Thatta, Dadu and Kiran) - remained inoperative while 28 sugar mills remained involved in the crushing process and 12990823.638 tonnes of sugar-cane was crushed. Out of 28, only 14 sugar mills had made full payment of the cane price while the remaining 14 mills are yet to pay over Rs 848 million.

They are Al-Asif, Digri, Fauji (Khoski), Fauji (TM Khan), Khairpur, Larr , Matiari, Najma, Ranipur, Sanghar, Seri, Shahmurad, and Tharparker sugar mills.

Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim directed the owners of all sugar mills in Sindh to ensure forthwith payment of outstanding dues to growers.

He further directed that sugarcane premium be also paid at the earliest.