HYDERABAD, Nov 24: Lack of storage facilities, quality seeds, pesticides and above all water have affected production of vegetables, which have great potential to contribute substantially to national economy by earning foreign exchange and creating new jobs.

Growers complain that besides other problems an unregulated use of vegetables' pesticides was making pests immune to drugs.

Sindh produces almost all kinds of vegetables but it grows more onions, chillies and tomatoes than others.

This year, cash crops like paddy and sugarcane on the right bank of Indus were badly hit by floods and exceptionally heavy rains lashed the left bank areas in lower Sindh which produce vegetables.

Being sensitive and easily perishable, vegetables did not survive heavy rains were seriously damaged, causing steep rise in their prices. Flood in Balochistan also contributed to the rise in vegetables' prices.

Families belonging to lower income class mostly opt for vegetables because they find prices of mutton, beef and chicken unaffordable but current price hike has deprived them of even vegetables.

They find no forum or authority to turn to for compensation or relief in the absence of a transparent price regulation system.

Current rise in fuel prices is bound to have an effect on vegetables prices.

Prices of onion and tomato are skyrocketing nowadays. Growers complain that when they had a bumper crop of tomatoes they were forced to sell it off at cheap rates or risk its destruction because of non-existence of an adequate storage system. Even otherwise, 30 to 40 per cent of vegetables were stored in Sindh, they said.

Sindh Abadgar Board's chairman Abdul Majeed Nizamani assessed farm gate value of Pakistans horticulture sector at $3 billion. Of it around 35 to 40 per cent, mostly vegetables, were wasted whose worth could be calculated at $1 billion, he said.

Sindh is blessed with great horticulture potential and can help alleviate poverty if the sector is managed in a proper manner.

Sindh government has planned different value addition projects but perhaps hardly any of them has been implemented. These projects were to be executed in Thatta and Badin districts.

Last year a proposal was put forward for setting up vegetable processing clusters of villages and a presentation was made to agriculturists on July 30, 2009 but since then no one has heard any word of it.

“We don't have allocations for this project this year because funds have been reduced currently in view of floods,” said Sindh agriculture secretary Agha Jan Akhtar.

Climatically, Sindh offers a suitable terrain for promoting horticulture sector but it lacks technology required for hybrid seed and dehydration plants to strengthen the sector strategically.

With vegetables in short supply, water rotation programme is being carried out presently by irrigation authorities for non-perennial canals. According to Haji Nadeem Shah from Matiari, it will ultimately delay vegetables' cultivation during current Rabi season.

The government does not plan things properly and it does not come up with sound estimates for vegetables which have great potential for exports in case of surplus yield. Quality seed and pesticides are essential for sustainability in crops' cultivation. “We need to concentrate on quality pesticides and hybrid seed technology that should be imported for preparing seed suitable to our own environment in order to capitalise on vegetables potential,” said Abdul Majeed Nizamani.

He called for establishment of dehydration plants to help vegetables' value addition and avoid their wastage. The project for dehydration plant was to be initiated under public-private partnership, consultants were hired, surveys conducted and growers were contacted but it the exercise came to nought.

For the time being, growers demand quality pesticides and seeds which are not available in the market. “I gave up cultivating vegetables primarily for want of water because vegetables need water every week and secondly because of unavailability of good pesticides,” complains Mir Moazam, a grower from Hyderabads Tando Fazal area.

“If we have surplus crop we can't store it as there are no such places to keep vegetables,” he said.

Non-existence of storage facility to ensure shelf life of vegetables or value addition services has serious impacts on growers and consumers alike.

Elsewhere in the world tomato's paste and onion's powder are prepared to be used as alternate in case of shortage of the crop or during off season.

Currently, onion has become a rare commodity as it is being sold between Rs55 to Rs65 per kg and tomato's price has also remained more or less the same, oscillating between Rs80 to Rs40.

This indicates lack of strategy as tomato price hits rock bottom at Rs15 per kg when it is in surplus and jumps to Rs80-90 when it is in short supply.

Growers naturally go for a particular crop each year after reaping good returns. Production of a particular vegetable increases when there is no pest attack on the crop but it also causes a drop in prices if supply exceeds demand.

Major vegetable markets lack an adequate system for maintaining cold chain which causes 35 to 40 per cent wastage.