HYDERABAD, Jan 13: Sindh Secretary for Agriculture Sabhago Khan Jatoi has said that Sindh may have to face some shortfall in the production of different crops, mainly caused by shortage of water supply during the current year.

Mr Jatoi said at a meeting with the members of the Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HCCI) on Saturday that Sindh had exceeded wheat target last year and claimed that 97 per cent sowing of wheat had been completed in the province this year.

The new vegetable market on Hala Naka was in a bad shape but conditions would improve very much after new drainage lines had been laid there, he assured.

He said that the plots in the market would be transferred in accordance with conditions agreed upon between the parties at the time of booking. The basic purpose behind the conditions was to ensure that only genuine traders got the plots, he said.

He said that it would take only a week to get the market plan approved by the Hyderabad Development Authority (HAD). The district government was constructing a road over the Akram Wah and also planning to raise a boundary wall along the channel, he added.

Mr Jatoi said that the wholesale business and auction of fruits and vegetables would be held at the new market and the traders would be allowed to do retail business at the taluka vegetable markets.

He said that the grain market, which, like the vegetable market, was also located in a densely populated area in the city, would be shifted near to Qasimabad bypass on a 30-acre piece of land. Guards would be posted at the present grain market to provide security to grain merchants, he assured.

HCCI President Haji Mohammad Yaqoob underlined the problems of fruit and vegetable merchants and said that the traders had booked shops in the new vegetable market in 1996 but it had still not started functioning depite the fact that the fruit and vegetable merchants were ready to shift to the new venue.