Mohammad Khan Khoso and Mohammad Qasim Memon said a mix of genuine and fake fertilisers and substandard seed were being sold to growers. They had complained to dealers as well as officials but received no response. - File photo

HYDERABAD: Growers of Matiari have expressed the fear that production of oilseed, gram, cotton and other crops will drop by 50 per cent because of sale of substandard seed and fertiliser and spurious pesticides in the town.

During meetings with officials of the Research and Development for Human Resources which has launched “Grow more crops” campaign in Matiari in collaboration with Oxfam, they said that small growers would suffer losses of tens of millions of rupees this year.

They said dealers of fake fertilisers, seeds and pesticides were minting money in the district. They spend thousands of rupees on each acre on farm inputs but they do not get back even the cost of production.

They said their crops and houses were destroyed by rains but the government did not provide them any relief.

Rafique Khoso, Khan Khaskheli, Khair Mohammad Khaskheli and Faqiro Khaskheli said that labels on fertiliser bags were genuine but the contents were spurious, which had affected fertility of land.

Mohammad Khan Khoso and Mohammad Qasim Memon said a mix of genuine and fake fertilisers and substandard seed were being sold to growers. They had complained to dealers as well as officials but received no response.

They demanded that godowns of such dealers be sealed and agriculture experts be sent to Matiari to investigate the matter.

Representatives of NGOs met a large number of growers and women farm workers in 20 villages of the union councils of Matiari, Shah Alam Shah and Sekhat.

EDUCATION: The Sindh Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority and City Guild International have singed an agreement.