June 16, 2008	Monday	Jamadi-us-Sani 11, 1429

HYDERABAD, June 15: The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) cautioned on Sunday that the agriculture sector would be destroyed if the government did not help reduce soaring prices of fertilisers, pesticides, agricultural machinery and tractors.

The chamber which met here under its head Syed Qamaruzzaman Shah urged the government to save agriculture and strongly criticised high rates of mark-up being charged by commercial banks on agricultural loans.

The meeting termed 16 per cent mark-up on agricultural loans unjustified and uncalled for and called upon the government to direct the banks to charge nine per cent mark-up on agricultural loans in line with the practice of agriculture banks.

The meeting reiterated the growers’ demand that it should be made binding on sugar mills to pay government-fixed price of sugarcane, and expressed bitterness over Sindh government’s indifference towards the issue.

The meeting decided to invite the prime minister on behalf of the Pakistan Agriculture Federation and apprise him of the problems confronting the farming community of the province.

Akhund Ghulam Mohammad Siddiqui, Anwar Bachani, Agha Nasrullah, Dr Shahnawaz Shah, Mohammad Khan Sarejo and others attended the meeting.