SANGHAR, Aug 1: Vegetable growers have demanded proper assessment of losses caused by rain and floods to vegetable crops in the country. They said the recent rain and flood have caused a considerable damage to tomato, onion, chilli, cabbage, cauliflower, bitter gourds, ladyfinger and other vegetable crops. The government, they urged, should carry out a precise survey of the loss.

Hassan Askari of the Small Growers Association, Mir Nizamani, Yar Mohammad Leghari of the Sindh Abadgar Board and others said that vegetable crops in Sindh, Punjab, the NWFP and Balochistan have received a hard blow.

They said that after the monsoon, farmers would rush to re-sow the vegetable and the date of sowing will be the same.

They said that in normal conditions every area has its own sowing date i.e. tomatoes in Balochistan early March-April, Mirpurkhas June-July, Thatta November etc, but due to damage, farmers would scramble to re-sow which will create an overlap of crops/season and will create glut in December-January.

During 2003-04 season onion was sown on 27,000 hectares in Punjab, 50,000 hectares in Sindh, 10,000 hectare in NWFP, 21,000 hectare in Balochistan, similarly chilli 6,000 hectares in Punjab, 46,000 hectares in Sindh, 0.4 hectare in the NWFP, 2,000 hectares in Balochistan, while tomatoes were sown in 5,000 hectares in Punjab, 6,000 hectares in Sindh, 15,000 hectares in the NWFP and 12,000 hectares in Balochistan.

Besides other vegetable crops, Mr Askari said that if the farmers were not properly guided, they will create a glut because farmers will sow in single go, otherwise it was step by step according to the prevailing practice of sowing according to their own areas.

They said other cash crops like cotton, rice, sugarcane, if once damage cannot be grown the same year but vegetables can be sown again i.e. tomatoes in Mirpurkhas and Badin are sown early and late at Thatta.

They said that due to damage at Mirpurkhas and Badin, farmers would sow again and the season will coincide with crop of Thatta.

They have demanded an immediate assessment of vegetable crops in the country.